Clean Webpack Plugin

clean-webpack-plugin is a utility designed to clean or remove build folders before or after webpack compilations. Its current stable version is 4.0.0, which supports Node.js 14+ and webpack 5+. The plugin typically sees major version updates to align with breaking changes in Node.js and webpack, ensuring compatibility with the latest ecosystem features. Key differentiators include its simplicity, with no configuration needed for standard usage (cleaning webpack's output.path directory), and its intelligent handling of webpack's watch mode where it only removes assets generated by webpack that are no longer in use. It leverages the 'del' package for robust globbing support, allowing for flexible pattern matching to define what should be cleaned. It is a fundamental tool for maintaining clean build directories in webpack projects.