Closure Library Update: Generating deps.js

[Kelvin Jin]

Dear Closure Library users:

We are removing the checked-in closure/goog/deps.js file from the Closure Library GitHub repository, in favor of providing a script to generate it. This may or may not affect your workflow, based on how you depend on Closure Library.

If you depend on the NPM module:

This is the preferred method and will continue to work with no change: closure/goog/deps.js is still bundled in the google-closure-library npm module, so you don't need to do anything different.

If you depend on sources by cloning the GitHub repository:

Since the file is no longer checked in, you will need to generate it: from the repository's root directory, run npm run gen_deps_js. This script is automatically run upon npm install, and requires Node 10+. Generally, you will need to regenerate the file whenever you update your local copy of Closure Library sources.

Note that the deps.js file is only required if using the debug loader.  If you have a workflow that involves loading base.js via a script tag in an HTML file, then it is likely you are using the debug loader and will need an accurate deps.js.  If, on the other hand, you only serve bundles compiled with Closure Compiler, then deps.js is unnecessary.

Please let us know if you have any questions or difficulties by filing a GitHub issue.

Thanks,

The Closure Library Team