Error Raised Only When Using Jenkins Pipeline - windows

Question

I am trying to setup a Jenkins pipeline using scripted pipeline with a windows 2019 server, however I ran into this error while trying to build
> webpack --config ./config/webpack-cli-prod.config.js
C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\javascript\JavascriptModulesPlugin.js:143
throw new TypeError(
^
TypeError: The 'compilation' argument must be an instance of Compilation
at Function.getCompilationHooks (C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\javascript\JavascriptModulesPlugin.js:143:10)
at SourceMapDevToolModuleOptionsPlugin.apply (C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\SourceMapDevToolModuleOptionsPlugin.js:50:27)
at C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\SourceMapDevToolPlugin.js:163:53
at Hook.eval [as call] (eval at create (C:\myProject\node_modules\tapable\lib\HookCodeFactory.js:19:10), <anonymous>:100:1)
at Hook.CALL_DELEGATE [as _call] (C:\myProject\node_modules\tapable\lib\Hook.js:14:14)
at Compiler.newCompilation (C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\Compiler.js:1122:26)
at C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\Compiler.js:1166:29
at Hook.eval [as callAsync] (eval at create (C:\myProject\node_modules\tapable\lib\HookCodeFactory.js:33:10), <anonymous>:6:1)
at Hook.CALL_ASYNC_DELEGATE [as _callAsync] (C:\myProject\node_modules\tapable\lib\Hook.js:18:14)
at Compiler.compile (C:\myProject\node_modules\webpack\lib\Compiler.js:1161:28)
I tried to run same command/step using freestyle Jenkins job, and it works without this error.
I tried to run the same command on the Jenkins agent locally, and it works without this error.
I looked up on google, and came across this link here, I tried to use newer version of html-webpack-plugin, and we also tried to build without the plugin. All come to the same result, that the error would occur only when running from Jenkins scripted pipeline.
I also tried with a different server, while keeping the same agent and job configuration, and I also get the same error.
The version of npm is 8.11.0, the node version is 16.16.0. The agent is connected through running the agent.jar file from the agent.
The only difference I see between the freestyle job and the scripted pipeline job is the freestyle job appears to be run as SYSTEM by the Jenkins server, whereas the pipeline job is probably run with lower privilege (I am not entirely sure though). I saw also this post, where it says
in the Freestyle job everything is executed in the agent, but for the Scripted Pipeline Job, the pipeline code is translated in the controller to atomic commands that are sent to the agents.
But I have no idea how to make the scripted pipeline job run just like the freestyle job.
On one hand, it appears to have to do with webpack, and on the other it appears to be related to Jenkins since running freestyle and locally on the server is without errors.
This is how my Jenkins scripted pipeline looks like (with sensitive information removed)
node("My-Server"){
dir("C:\\MyProject"){
stage('Pre-Test Build Client (Web)') {
dir("aFolder"){
bat 'npm run build-all-prod' // This is the script that invoke the webpack build command
}
}
}
}
I have run out of options, and do not where to go from here, and I couldn't find any more information on google that would be helpful. Any help here would be really appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if jenkins creates the same environment variables, and command line tools (you can configure some on the node's configuration page). I would check if the node's environment variables and tools are the same in freestyle vs pipeline job by running something like this in each job, and comparing the output:
bat 'echo %PATH%'
bat 'which webpack'
bat 'npm list webpack'
Another thing worth checking is whether you're using batch script in both jobs, and not eg shell in freestyle.
Lastly I found a gh issue whith the same error as you, caused by having 2 different installations of webpack, one on v5. May be worth looking into, if everything else fails.