fix(serve): delete dist on serve

[filipesilva]

ng serve will serve the app from memory, but it's easy to think that it just serves what's in dist/.

This way, dist/ is deleted on ng serve and users will not have a dist/ dir where they might think the files are being served from.

Partially address #4290

[jaesung2061]

Why not just notify the user at the terminal?

I am using my public directory instead of dist which also contains other non-angular files.

If this isn't an option, I need to put the built files in a subdirectory like public/build instead. How can I configure the files so that the built html file has example.com/build/main.bundle.js instead of example.com/main.bundle.js

[Brocco]

@jaesung2061 The output directory (whether dist or public) should be added to .gitignore. And while they may be text files js/html/css they can be considered binary as they are the product of a build process.

That being said, I would suggest creating a assets folder (doesn't need to be named assets) for files to be moved to the output dir upon build which should solve the issues you're having if other files are getting deleted.

[jaesung2061]

How can I update the generated html file so that it requests build/*.js instead of /*.js?

<!--This-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="build/inline.bundle.js">

<!--Not this-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="inline.bundle.js">

Or instead of deleting the entire directory, you can delete the known generated files. E.g.

inline.bundle.js
inline.bundle.js.map
main.bundle.js
main.bundle.js.map
polyfills.bundle.js
polyfills.bundle.js.map
styles.bundle.js
styles.bundle.js.map
vendor.bundle.js
vendor.bundle.js.map
index.html

And the files listed in .angular-cli.json under the assets array.

[avbentem]

Just for your information: note that since 1.1.0-rc.0 ng serve supports --delete-output-path=false, which suppresses deletion of dist (or whatever folder is configured in .angular-cli.json, or on the command line using ng serve --output-path=...).

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