Why use 'lib' vs 'src' directory names in JavaScript? Which is 'standard'?

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Solution 1

Interesting question, but it seems to me that some developers just take it by their own worldview.

It also depends on the project:

Some projects are built with smaller components, which are just little pieces of the main functionality: lib.

lib/independent-pieces.js

Other projects are monolithic, the components depend on each other: src.

src/this-is-all-for-this-project-and-depend-on-each-other.js

For third-party libraries, it's common to use vendor.

vendor/bootstrap/
vendor/d3/

Solution 2

  • /node_modules - for 3rd party libraries.
  • /lib or /vendor- suggested putting your libraries which is not required for compilation.
  • /src - for your code source
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Updated on June 02, 2022

Comments

  • simbolo
    simbolo over 1 year

    There are many popular JavaScript libraries and applications on GitHub and some put their raw source code in a /src directory, and others in a /lib directory.

    I'm leaning towards the developers having done this depending on which languages they were taught growing up. So I see a lot of Java developers use /lib (who also normally end up putting their packaged JS into a /bin directory). Meanwhile I often observe that those who use /src output their packaged JS into a /dist folder instead.

    What is considered the standard pattern for JavaScript, src or lib. Maybe there isn't a right or wrong answer at all.