Forced version of the webpack

[janousek]

🐞 Bug report

Command (mark with an x)

• new
• build
• serve
• test
• e2e
• generate
• add
• update
• lint
• extract-i18n
• run
• config
• help
• version
• doc

Is this a regression?

Yes, the previous version in which this bug was not present was: <12.0.0

Description

In angular 12.x.x version of the webpack is forced by the package.json in @Angular-devkit\build-angular

angular-cli/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/package.json

Line 71 in 638344a

"webpack": "5.36.2",

angular-cli/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/package.json

Line 71 in 2f29596

"webpack": "5.37.0",

Is there any reason not to use minor release? Like this:

"webpack": "^5.36.2",

If we install different version of the webpack in our project it is installed twice. And it causes version mishmash and produces errors like this: "TypeError: The 'compilation' argument must be an instance of Compilation..."

There is already reported several bugs caused by this:
#20768
#20773
#20786

🔥 Exception or Error

TypeError: The 'compilation' argument must be an instance of Compilation
    at getCompilationHooks ....................

Anything else relevant?

[alan-agius4]

Hi @janousek,

We pin all of our versions to ensure that the Angular CLI doesn't break when a 3rd party direct dependency cut a release and therefore provide a more stable tool.

Over the years, a number of packages had breaking changes / serious regressions including in patch versions which otherwise would have broke a lot of users. Webpack is one of these packages, which even recently in version 3.37.1 had a regression which would have cause all Angular CLI projects stop work if consumed.

Regarding the mentioned issues, those errors seems to be caused by NPM 7 and a defect in its module hoisting logic. We did notice NPM about this issue and are waiting for a resolution.

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