Feature Request: option for publicDir to override the default public root in dev mode

[GrygrFlzr]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, even though publicDir is set to a directory inside vite.config.js, in addition to serving those files statically, all files in the current directory are also still served as static files in dev mode.

For example, http://localhost:3000/package.json will always show the project's package.json regardless of the publicDir.

Describe the solution you'd like

One of:

• Disable the "default root is always public" behavior when the publicDir is set (is this a breaking change?)
• An option in the config to disable the "root is public" behavior, if the above is not feasible.

Additional context

Some devs have tripped up and accidentally referenced /public/image.png in their code, which works in dev but breaks in production, as the project root is no longer served as static.

[rdmurphy]

We also hit this and it made me wish it was possible to just copy <publicDir> right into <build.outDir> without putting those files in the root + maintaining the same directory structure. Then the path-ing would work as you'd expect even after building and still be compatible with any import.meta.env.BASE_URL concatenation in JavaScript.

It feels counter intuitive that everything else paths the way you'd expect except for files in the <publicDir>. I was trying to explain to another developer that <publicDir> is unique and they should "pretend" it's in the root and it really didn't click. (Especially because it does work in dev mode as @GrygrFlzr notes!)

I'd probably advocate for control of where <publicDir> ends up in builds (or a breaking change that makes it work as I suggested above) vs. purposely making the dev server work not as you'd expect to force this mechanism.

[rdmurphy]

(I do recognize that would lead to favicon.ico and robots.txt not being in their "default" locations, but that's already true if you are using base, correct?)

[rdmurphy]

@patak-js Did this actually get addressed with that commit? I may have overlooked it but that seemed to be only changes related to Stylus.

[GrygrFlzr]

Nope. That's a typo in the commit message, they intended to close #2857, not this issue. Reopening.

[dallonf]

What's the rationale for this being a feature that the dev server currently works differently than production in this way? I was actually just coming here to report a bug when a member of my team imported some assets from the root directory instead of putting them in "public", which would have caused it to break in production had I not caught it.

[hyf0]

For now, vite will warn about the unexpected requests for publicDir. See details in #4631. Do we still need an explicit option to disable "root is public"?

[patak-dev]

I agree with @hyf0 here. After #4631, the main problem the new option is trying to solve shouldn't occur as the users will see a clear warning: Playground.

We also discussed in a team meeting that the Vite server should keep working as an enhanced static server over the root directory, as this is part of the mental model of Vite.