Are you sure next-translate-plugin should be a dev dependency?

[brunoscopelliti]

What version of this package are you using?

next: 13.4.11
next-translate: 2.5.2
next-translate-plugin: 2.5.2

What operating system, Node.js, and npm version?

Docker image

node:18.15.0-alpine3.17

What happened?

After building next.js project I delete the dev dependencies, and start the project. When I start the project i get this error:

Error: Cannot find module 'next-translate-plugin'
Require stack:
- /app/next.config.js
at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1075:15)
at /app/node_modules/next/dist/server/require-hook.js:113:36
at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:920:27)
at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1141:19)
at require (node:internal/modules/cjs/helpers:110:18)
at Object.<anonymous> (/app/next.config.js:1:23)
at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1254:14)
at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1308:10)
at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1117:32)
at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:958:12) {
code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
requireStack: [ '/app/next.config.js' ]
}
Node.js v18.15.0
Container called exit(1).

I fixed the problem, installing next-translate-plugin as a normal dependency, but this surprised me a bit cause in the readme it is stated that next-translate-plugin is a dev dependency.

What did you expect to happen?

I didn't expect to have to keep next-translate-plugin around after building the project.

[aralroca]

It is curious because it only runs during build, not in runtime. But well, put it in dependencies for now and I will investigate why it happens, because it shouldn't be necessary. Thanks @brunoscopelliti to report it

[StLyn4]

If I understand correctly, when the production server starts, it loads next.config.js. the webpack function is not executed, but the module is required at the beginning of the file anyway. So, in theory, all next.js plugins should be declared in dependencies

[aralroca]

Thanks for the clarification @StLyn4

[Tronder]

We also ended in the devDependency trap, maybe someone could update this error message when running the app without next-translate-plugin installed: