wp-scripts: Remove clean-webpack-plugin dependency. (#71080)

vipul0425 · vipul0425 · gziolo · web-flow · commit 0c011baca9cb · 2025-08-21T21:44:35.000+02:00
* feat: Remove clean-webpack-plugin

* Docs: Update changelog.

* Docs: Update changelog.

* Update packages/scripts/CHANGELOG.md

---------

Co-authored-by: Greg Ziółkowski &lt;grzegorz@gziolo.pl&gt;

Unlinked contributors: hpoom.

Co-authored-by: vipul0425 &lt;vipulgupta003@git.wordpress.org&gt;
Co-authored-by: gziolo &lt;gziolo@git.wordpress.org&gt;
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
diff --git a/packages/scripts/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/scripts/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Internal
+
+-   Remove deprecated `clean-webpack-plugin` dependency in favor of webpack's native cleaning functionality ([#71080](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71080))
+
 ## 30.22.0 (2025-08-20)
 
 ## 30.21.0 (2025-08-07)
diff --git a/packages/scripts/config/webpack.config.js b/packages/scripts/config/webpack.config.js
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
  * External dependencies
  */
 const { BundleAnalyzerPlugin } = require( 'webpack-bundle-analyzer' );
-const { CleanWebpackPlugin } = require( 'clean-webpack-plugin' );
 const CopyWebpackPlugin = require( 'copy-webpack-plugin' );
 const webpack = require( 'webpack' );
 const browserslist = require( 'browserslist' );
@@ -108,6 +107,14 @@ const baseConfig = {
 		filename: '[name].js',
 		chunkFilename: '[name].js?ver=[chunkhash]',
 		path: resolve( process.cwd(), 'build' ),
+		// Clean output directory before emit, except when modules flag is enabled
+		// to prevent the 2 compilations from cleaning each other's output
+		...( ! hasExperimentalModulesFlag && {
+			clean: {
+				// Keep fonts and images directories
+				keep: /^(fonts|images)\//,
+			},
+		} ),
 	},
 	resolve: {
 		alias: {
@@ -314,16 +321,6 @@ const scriptConfig = {
 			SCRIPT_DEBUG: JSON.stringify( ! isProduction ),
 		} ),
 
-		// If we run a modules build, the 2 compilations can "clean" each other's output
-		// Prevent the cleaning from happening
-		! hasExperimentalModulesFlag &&
-			new CleanWebpackPlugin( {
-				cleanAfterEveryBuildPatterns: [ '!fonts/**', '!images/**' ],
-				// Prevent it from deleting webpack assets during builds that have
-				// multiple configurations returned in the webpack config.
-				cleanStaleWebpackAssets: false,
-			} ),
-
 		new PhpFilePathsPlugin( {
 			context: getProjectSourcePath(),
 			props: [ 'render', 'variations' ],
diff --git a/packages/scripts/package.json b/packages/scripts/package.json
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@
 		"browserslist": "^4.21.10",
 		"chalk": "^4.0.0",
 		"check-node-version": "^4.1.0",
-		"clean-webpack-plugin": "^3.0.0",
 		"copy-webpack-plugin": "^10.2.0",
 		"cross-spawn": "^7.0.6",
 		"css-loader": "^6.2.0",
