How to fix WebPack error describe: optionsSchema.definitions.output.properties.path.description

Problem:

You are trying to build your webpack project, but you see an error message like this:

/home/uli/project/node_modules/webpack-cli/bin/config-yargs.js:89
                                describe: optionsSchema.definitions.output.properties.path.description,
                                                                           ^

TypeError: Cannot read property 'properties' of undefined
    at module.exports (/home/uli/project/node_modules/webpack-cli/bin/config-yargs.js:89:48)
    at /home/uli/project/node_modules/webpack-cli/bin/webpack.js:60:27
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/uli/project/node_modules/webpack-cli/bin/webpack.js:515:3)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:723:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:734:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:620:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:560:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:552:3)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:659:17)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:22:18)

Solution

This is a known bug in webpack 4.20.0 - you can circumvent this issue by using webpack 4.19.0.

Look for a line like

"webpack": "^4.7.0",

in your package.json. The caret (^) allows npmto use any 4.x.x version - including the broken 4.20.0.

Replace the aforementioned line by

"webpack": "4.19.0",

to use only webpack 4.19.0.

After that, run npm install and retry building your application.