Express + react build error

Hi, so I’ve been using Netlify for a bit and always deployed with only react; I just tried creating an express server for the program and deploying to netlify; however when i set my publish directory to /plug-website/build (plug-website containing the src and public folders and where the build folder should be), i get this build log:

5:47:18 AM: build-image version: 4c0c1cadee6a31c9bb8d824514030009c4c05c6a (focal)
5:47:18 AM: build-image tag: v4.15.0
5:47:18 AM: buildbot version: cc0c986a947e274d444f48f63f797a5d01f2a89a
5:47:18 AM: Fetching cached dependencies
5:47:18 AM: Starting to download cache of 186.3MB
5:47:19 AM: Finished downloading cache in 1.569502338s
5:47:19 AM: Starting to extract cache
5:47:21 AM: Finished extracting cache in 1.241684162s
5:47:21 AM: Finished fetching cache in 2.848978136s
5:47:21 AM: Starting to prepare the repo for build
5:47:21 AM: Preparing Git Reference refs/heads/main
5:47:24 AM: Parsing package.json dependencies
5:47:25 AM: Different publish path detected, going to use the one specified in the Netlify configuration file: ‘plug-website/build’ versus ‘/plug-website/build’ in the Netlify UI
5:47:25 AM: Different functions path detected, going to use the one specified in the Netlify configuration file: ‘functions’ versus ‘’ in the Netlify UI
5:47:25 AM: Different build command detected, going to use the one specified in the Netlify configuration file: ‘npm install && npm run build’ versus ‘npm run build’ in the Netlify UI
5:47:25 AM: Section completed: initializing
5:47:25 AM: Starting build script
5:47:25 AM: Installing dependencies
5:47:25 AM: Python version set to 2.7
5:47:26 AM: Started restoring cached node version
5:47:26 AM: Finished restoring cached node version
5:47:27 AM: v16.18.1 is already installed.
5:47:27 AM: Now using node v16.18.1 (npm v8.19.2)
5:47:27 AM: Enabling node corepack
5:47:27 AM: Started restoring cached build plugins
5:47:27 AM: Finished restoring cached build plugins
5:47:27 AM: Attempting ruby version 2.7.2, read from environment
5:47:28 AM: Using ruby version 2.7.2
5:47:28 AM: Using PHP version 8.0
5:47:28 AM: No npm workspaces detected
5:47:28 AM: Started restoring cached node modules
5:47:28 AM: Finished restoring cached node modules
5:47:29 AM: Started restoring cached go cache
5:47:29 AM: Finished restoring cached go cache
5:47:29 AM: Installing Go version 1.17 (requested 1.17)
5:47:33 AM: unset GOOS;
5:47:33 AM: unset GOARCH;
5:47:33 AM: export GOROOT=‘/opt/buildhome/.gimme/versions/go1.17.linux.amd64’;
5:47:33 AM: export PATH=“/opt/buildhome/.gimme/versions/go1.17.linux.amd64/bin:${PATH}”;
5:47:33 AM: go version >&2;
5:47:33 AM: export GIMME_ENV=“/opt/buildhome/.gimme/env/go1.17.linux.amd64.env”
5:47:33 AM: go version go1.17 linux/amd64
5:47:33 AM: Detected 0 framework(s)
5:47:33 AM: Installing missing commands
5:47:33 AM: Verify run directory
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:35 AM: Netlify Build
5:47:35 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ❯ Version
5:47:35 AM: @netlify/build 29.0.1
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ❯ Flags
5:47:35 AM: baseRelDir: true
5:47:35 AM: buildId: 6391eae4dc3b7b00081e941b
5:47:35 AM: deployId: 6391eae4dc3b7b00081e941d
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ❯ Current directory
5:47:35 AM: /opt/build/repo
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ❯ Config file
5:47:35 AM: /opt/build/repo/netlify.toml
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ❯ Context
5:47:35 AM: production
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:35 AM: 1. build.command from netlify.toml
5:47:35 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:35 AM: ​
5:47:35 AM: $ npm install && npm run build
5:47:37 AM: up to date, audited 644 packages in 2s
5:47:37 AM: 35 packages are looking for funding
5:47:37 AM: run npm fund for details
5:47:37 AM: 5 high severity vulnerabilities
5:47:37 AM: To address all issues, run:
5:47:37 AM: npm audit fix
5:47:37 AM: Run npm audit for details.
5:47:37 AM: > new-plug-vancouver-website@1.0.0 build
5:47:37 AM: > netlify-lambda build server
5:47:37 AM: netlify-lambda: Building functions
5:47:41 AM: Hash: 60b5e0a2df2dffebf1c6
5:47:41 AM: Version: webpack 4.46.0
5:47:41 AM: Time: 3099ms
5:47:41 AM: Built at: 12/08/2022 1:47:41 PM
5:47:41 AM: Asset Size Chunks Chunk Names
5:47:41 AM: server.js 680 KiB 0 [emitted] server
5:47:41 AM: Entrypoint server = server.js
5:47:41 AM: [0] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/StripeResource.js 18.8 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [1] external “path” 42 bytes {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [3] ./node_modules/depd/index.js 10.7 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [4] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/utils.js 10.8 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [6] external “fs” 42 bytes {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [15] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/Error.js 4.68 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [16] external “events” 42 bytes {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [20] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/net/HttpClient.js 1.58 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [34] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/crypto/CryptoProvider.js 1.42 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [46] ./node_modules/body-parser/index.js 2.62 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [67] ./server.js 2.22 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [68] ./node_modules/dotenv/lib/main.js 2.72 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [71] ./node_modules/stripe/lib/stripe.js 11.4 KiB {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [181] ./node_modules/express/index.js 224 bytes {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: [243] ./node_modules/serverless-http/serverless-http.js 659 bytes {0} [built]
5:47:41 AM: + 245 hidden modules
5:47:41 AM: WARNING in ./node_modules/express/lib/view.js 81:13-25
5:47:41 AM: Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
5:47:41 AM: @ ./node_modules/express/lib/application.js
5:47:41 AM: @ ./node_modules/express/lib/express.js
5:47:41 AM: @ ./node_modules/express/index.js
5:47:41 AM: @ ./server.js
5:47:41 AM: ​
5:47:41 AM: (build.command completed in 5.7s)
5:47:41 AM: ​
5:47:41 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:41 AM: 2. Functions bundling
5:47:41 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:41 AM: ​
5:47:41 AM: Packaging Functions from functions directory:
5:47:41 AM: - aws-serverless.js
5:47:41 AM: - server.js
5:47:41 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: Creating deploy upload records
5:47:42 AM: (Functions bundling completed in 1s)
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:42 AM: 3. Deploy site
5:47:42 AM: Failed during stage ‘building site’: Build script returned non-zero exit code: 2 (Search results for '"non-zero exit code: 2"' - Netlify Support Forums)
5:47:42 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: Section completed: deploying
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:42 AM: Configuration error
5:47:42 AM: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: Error message
5:47:42 AM: Deploy did not succeed: Deploy directory ‘plug-website/build’ does not exist
5:47:42 AM: ​
5:47:42 AM: Resolved config
5:47:42 AM: build:
5:47:42 AM: command: npm install && npm run build
5:47:42 AM: commandOrigin: config
5:47:42 AM: environment:
5:47:42 AM: - CI
5:47:42 AM: - NETLIFY_GRAPH_TOKEN
5:47:42 AM: - ONEGRAPH_AUTHLIFY_TOKEN
5:47:42 AM: publish: /opt/build/repo/plug-website/build
5:47:42 AM: publishOrigin: ui
5:47:42 AM: functionsDirectory: /opt/build/repo/functions
5:47:42 AM: redirects:
5:47:42 AM: - from: /*
status: 200
to: /index.html
redirectsOrigin: config
Caching artifacts
5:47:42 AM: Started saving node modules
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving node modules
5:47:42 AM: Started saving build plugins
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving build plugins
5:47:42 AM: Started saving pip cache
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving pip cache
5:47:42 AM: Started saving emacs cask dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving emacs cask dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Started saving maven dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving maven dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Started saving boot dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving boot dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Started saving rust rustup cache
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving rust rustup cache
5:47:42 AM: Started saving go dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Finished saving go dependencies
5:47:42 AM: Build failed due to a user error: Build script returned non-zero exit code: 2
5:47:42 AM: Failing build: Failed to build site
5:47:43 AM: Finished processing build request in 24.822711054s

and if i set it as /plug-website/public, i just get the blank HTML file with only the index.html without any renders. what should i do?

It highly depends on your project and setup, we cannot see that, so cannot comment much. In short, you should try building your project locally, check where you get the generated output and set that as the publish folder.