Suggestion: compiler option to validate "empty imports"

[OliverJAsh]

Search Terms

empy import cannot find module symbols side deffect

Suggestion

Current behaviour: given an empty import (an import that has side effects and/or does not import any symbols):

import './abc';

If the module does not exist, there will be no error.

This is unlike other (non-empty) imports, which will error for non-existent modules:

import 'foo' from ./abc';

I understand this is intended behaviour as per #20534 (comment).

I would like to suggest a compiler option for people to opt-in to the stricter behaviour. This could also be added to the strict compiler option.

Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

• This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript / JavaScript code
• This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
• This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
• This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. new expression-level syntax)

[not-ai-yet]

Did this ever get implemented?

[r2d2-robot]

Currently can be handled by some eslint plugins, for example :
import/no-unresolved
in combination with
https://github.com/import-js/eslint-import-resolver-typescript?tab=readme-ov-file#eslint-import-resolver-typescript

But really strange that there is no option in TS itself.

[RyanCavanaugh]

This did get implemented! It's actually the default now in 6.0. See #62443 etc