Base path not working like the docs said

[harrytran998]

What version of astro are you using?

latest

Are you using an SSR adapter? If so, which one?

NodeJs 18 LTS + SSR nodejs standalone

What package manager are you using?

yarn 3

What operating system are you using?

Mac

Describe the Bug

https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/configuration-reference/#base

The docs said it only affects production. But seem in development, this still have effect.

When I config astro.config.js like this

import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';
import svelte from '@astrojs/svelte';
import AstroNode from '@astrojs/node';

export default defineConfig({
  output: 'server',
  integrations: [svelte()],
  base: '/ok',
  server: {
    port: 4000,
    host: '0.0.0.0',
  },
  adapter: AstroNode({
    mode: 'standalone',
  }),
});

In dev mode, it will throw a warning like this

[serve]  404   /favicon.ico
[dev] Requests for items in your public folder must also include your base. /favicon.svg should be /ok/favicon.svg. Omitting the base will break in production.

And the screen shows like this

404: Not found
In your site you have your base path set to [/ok/](http://localhost:3000/ok/). Do you want to go there instead?

In my mind, I think this base path is like the concept of NextJs. But seem not correct like they do.

--- With NextJs concept
When I config basePath to /ok --> In production mode, at least this will auto append /ok to the href with next/link. And the assets must be appended with base path ok/.

But seem Astro not auto append href 🤔.

Link to Minimal Reproducible Example

Stackblitz did not work correctly with the base path. So your team needs to pull this source code 😆.

https://github.com/harrytran998/rep-astro-base-path
(Here is the version of stackblitz to check https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-ncwvvs?file=astro.config.mjs)

Participation

• I am willing to submit a pull request for this issue.

[marcfielding1]

I had this issue, and did this in the build script as a workaround, the problem is setting basepath doesn't affect where Astro puts the build assets:

So make your base path directory in dist/ then copy/move the files from dist to the correct place.

    "build": "astro build && mkdir ./ok && cp -R ./dist/* ./ok && mv ./ok ./dist",

Then have your hrefs and src's point at /ok/theAsset.png/js etc

I spoke to Nate on their discord about this he was enquiring on if this was intended behavior.

[harrytran998]

I had this issue, and did this in the build script as a workaround, the problem is setting basepath doesn't affect where Astro puts the build assets:

So make your base path directory in dist/ then copy/move the files from dist to the correct place.

    "build": "astro build && mkdir ./ok && cp -R ./dist/* ./ok && mv ./ok ./dist",

Then have your hrefs and src's point at /ok/theAsset.png/js etc

I spoke to Nate on their discord about this he was enquiring on if this was intended behavior.

Thanks for your suggestion 🙏. But seem we need official support for everyone can use this 😁.
I will try this soon.

[wassfila]

this feels like a painful issue, every Astro user has a different adhoc solution, here's what I ended up doing, a custom config file

if(process.env.MODE == "MIDDLEWARE"){
    config.base = ""
}

https://github.com/MicroWebStacks/astro-big-doc/blob/dd2ef27ff03fa649f801f66e7e96a5e7334513b6/config.js#L13

because if I try to import the config in astro.config.mjs, then I get a real dev server crash, mystery, closed it only because it's vite, not Astro, but issue still valid posted details here withastro/astro#5517

[marcfielding1]

Yeah I think there needs be a cross-platform solution to how basePath is applied - but this open source so we can all find a solution and contribute rather than relying on the core team @wassfila my company are happy to work on a proposal for this in terms of functionality but the trouble we'd need to deal with the various adaptors I think.(vercel, upcoming AWS, netfly etc) so any core team input on what the preferred direction is would help before we do the work.

[wassfila]

That's true @marcfielding1 , especially for improvements that break compatibility. For base and many others, Astro inherites Vites problems, see https://vitejs.dev/config/shared-options.html#base
So maybe looking forward on how Vite is evolving can help. Astro is a Vite user but also contributor.

[marcfielding1]

basePath seems wonky at the moment but without being involved in internal astro dev conversation I can't criticise really, so yeah lets see what the team come back with - it definitely needs work, just in line with the goals I guess.

[harrytran998]

LOL, seems not to work for me in my case 😆. Bcs we have a web with the old path /prefix/ok/* --> Astro project will serve ok/*.

Currently, I use the scripts to replace the path in entry.mjs build file to work around but looks so messy 😆. I hope the Astro team can investigate some time to do this.

[matthewp]

Moving to the docs repo since this is a docs issue. Using the base in development is intended behavior.

[sarah11918]

I think this is related to the rabbit hole of PRs that started here: #1643 that I am trying to pin down! I suspect we actually have proper docs that were blocked by some unexpected behaviour. I think we're unblocked, and I'm trying to confirm whether we can now re-merge a previous docs fix that we intended to have! 😅

[sarah11918]

And, looks like I should be able to close this! Although this previous PR to our configuration reference was merged, it was reverted to fix a bug with the intention we'd add it back after bug fix. Bug is fixed, and we'll be re-introducing this into docs: https://github.com/withastro/astro/pull/4954/files

If you notice any problems, feel free to reopen!

[sarah11918]

Followup: withastro/astro#5693 has been made to address this. Comments can be made there!