microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Using `"allowJs": true` and `"module": "commonjs"` to transform `.mjs` files should emit `.cjs` files

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Domain: Node ESM Possible Improvement
Dominant language
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Description

Bug Report

🔎 Search Terms

CommonJS, allowJS, ESM, CJS, file extensions

🕗 Version & Regression Information
  • This is the behavior in every version I tried, and I reviewed the FAQ for entries about output "file extensions for CommonJS modules".
⏯ Playground Link

Sandbox link with relevant code (I couldn't use the playground, since this involves using an .mjs file).

💻 Code
// package.json
{
  "name": "tsc-mjs-extension-bug",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "type": "commonjs",
  "main": "dist/javascript.mjs",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc",
    "test": "node ."
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "typescript": "5.1.3"
  }
}

// tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "nodenext",
    "allowJs": true,
    "outDir": "dist"
  }
  "include": ["src"]
}
// src/javascript.mjs
export const where = "javascript";
console.log(`Hello ${where}`);
// src/typescript.ts
export const where = "typescript";
console.log(`Hello ${where}`);
🙁 Actual behavior

The javascript.mjs is transformed to CommonJS (as expected), but the file extension of the emitted file is still .mjs.
This breaks the package, since .mjs is supposed to be use exclusively for JavaScript using ESM and the emitted file now uses CommonJS.

🙂 Expected behavior

I would expect tsc to transform the src/javascript.mjs to CommonJS and either:

  1. emit it as dist/javascript.cjs or alternatively
  2. take into account the "type": "commonjs" in the package.json and emit the file as .js as it does with the src/typescript.ts file.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the issue with package.json, tsconfig.json, src/javascript.mjs, and src/typescript.ts from the report, then run the build and test scripts. Compare the emitted extensions and module formats in dist; done means the .mjs input transformed to CommonJS is emitted with an extension that is valid for that format, with coverage for the chosen behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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