barrel file

noun

A JavaScript or TypeScript module which does nothing except import various files and then export them together, for the convenience of other developers who only need to know about and work with that single barrel file.

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Meanings

nounbarrel file (plural barrel files)

plural barrel files

  1. computingA JavaScript or TypeScript module which does nothing except import various files and then export them together, for the convenience of other developers who only need to know about and work with that single barrel file.

    The first thing you want to do to build your framework is export the functions that you want to expose to the developer using it from the src/index.js barrel file. Whatever you export from this file makes the public API of the framework.

    2024, Ángel Sola Orbaiceta, Build a Frontend Web Framework (From Scratch), Shelter Island, N.Y.: Manning Publications Co., →ISBN, page 111
Cite this entry
APA

barrel file. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrel%20file

MLA

“barrel file.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrel%20file. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barrel file,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrel%20file.

Source: barrel file on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.