Using environment variables

To disambiguate in your webpack.config.js between development and production builds, you may use environment variables. The standard approach in Node.js modules can be applied: Set an environment variable when running webpack and refer to the variables using Node's process.env. The variable NODE_ENV is commonly used as de-facto standard (see here).

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin({
+      compress: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
    })
  ]
};

Use the cross-env package to cross-platform-set environment variables:

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production PLATFORM=web webpack"
  }
}

References

• https://blog.flennik.com/the-fine-art-of-the-webpack-2-config-dc4d19d7f172#.297u8iuz1