esbuild 0.16.0+ always replaces process.env.NODE_ENV

[sapphi-red]

process.env.NODE_ENV = 'test'
const foo = process.env.NODE_ENV

is tranformed to

"development" = "test"; // invalid syntax here
const foo = "development";

from esbuild 0.16.0. (esbuild repl with 0.16.1)

This was not happening in esbuild 0.15.18.

Using --define:process.env.NODE_ENV=process.env.NODE_ENV (repl) seems to work.

[evanw]

Thanks for the report. This might be due to the transform API call now defaulting to the browser platform instead of the neutral platform. If I'm right, then setting platform: 'neutral' should be a quick way to get back to the old behavior. I'll look into this and #2719.

[sapphi-red]

Thanks!