`references` are not inherited in `tsconfig.json`

[borekb]

TypeScript Version: 3.1.0-dev.20180914

Search Terms: tsconfig.json extends references inheritance

It seems that the references key is not inherited via the extends mechanism, which surprised me because the handbook doesn't mention anything special about it.

Demo:

tsconfig.base.json:

{
 "references": [
 { "path": "./some/other/project" }
 ],
 "compilerOptions": {
 "declaration": true,
 "composite": true
 }
}

tsconfig.doesnt-work.json:

{
 "extends": "./tsconfig.base.json"
}

Building tsconfig.doesnt-work.json doesn't build the reference:

$ tsc -b -f -d tsconfig.doesnt-work.json
[11:12:13] A non-dry build would build project 'C:/demo/tsconfig.doesnt-work.json'

tsconfig.works-but-duplicates-references.json:

{
 "extends": "./tsconfig.base.json",
 "references": [
 { "path": "./some/other/project" }
 ],
}

This is a correct build but I had to duplicate the references key:

$ tsc -b -f -d tsconfig.works-but-duplicates-references.json
[11:12:13] A non-dry build would build project 'C:/demo/tsconfig.works-but-duplicates-references.json'
[11:12:13] A non-dry build would build project 'C:/demo/some/other/project/tsconfig.json'

[RyanCavanaugh]

This is the intended behavior but we need to document it

[NoelAbrahams]

Ryan Cavanaugh (@RyanCavanaugh), what was the reasoning behind disallowing inheritance of the "reference" setting? In the old <reference> tag set-up all references of the "base" project were automatically inherited by the "client" project.

IMO that seemed to be the outcome of least surprise.