Globstar pattern returns an empty string as an element of the results array

[mrmlnc]

What the problem?

The ** pattern returns an empty string as an element of the results array.

Steps to reproduce

const ng = require('glob');

// MaxDepth option only for shortening the list of results
const entries = ng.globSync('**', { maxDepth: 1 });

console.dir(entries, { colors: true });

Actual behaviour

[
  '',
  'tsconfig.json',
  'src',
  'package.json',
  'out',
  'node_modules',
  'index.js',
  'herebyfile.mjs',
  'fixtures',
  'README.md',
  'LICENSE'
]

Expected behavioud

[
- '',
  'tsconfig.json',
  'src',
  'package.json',
  'out',
  'node_modules',
  'index.js',
  'herebyfile.mjs',
  'fixtures',
  'README.md',
  'LICENSE'
]

[isaacs]

This is by design. That empty string is a valid result. Globstar matches directories as well as files, and '' is "the current directory". If you set dotRelative: true or absolute: true it's more apparent what's going on.

You could argue, I guess, that the first globstar portion should not match the cwd, but that's a quirk of bash that I didn't copy, since node-glob normalizes all "empty" portions at the start of the pattern, so ./x/y is equivalent to x/y.

const ng = require('glob');

// MaxDepth option only for shortening the list of results
const entries = ng.globSync('**', { maxDepth: 1, dotRelative: true });

console.dir(entries, { colors: true });

$ node ng.js
[ './', './y', './ng.js', './d', './c', './b', './a' ]

[mrmlnc]

I think this is a very inconvenient solution for the end user. An empty string cannot be used in many standard methods for working with the file system.

> fs.readdir('')
Uncaught:
TypeError [ERR_INVALID_CALLBACK]: Callback must be a function. Received undefined
    at __node_internal_captureLargerStackTrace (node:internal/errors:465:5)
    at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:372:5)
    at __node_internal_ (node:internal/validators:224:11)
    at makeCallback (node:fs:186:3)
    at Object.readdir (node:fs:1369:14) {
  code: 'ERR_INVALID_CALLBACK'
}

> fs.lstatSync('')
Uncaught Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, lstat
    at Object.lstatSync (node:fs:1529:3) {
  errno: -2,
  syscall: 'lstat',
  code: 'ENOENT'
}

And every time the user will have to exclude this element from the results array.

And, yeap, makes sense with the options that you mentioned above.

[isaacs]

Hm. Maybe I could have dotRelative default to true when the result is an empty string?

[isaacs]

@mrmlnc Can you check out #520 and see how that works for you?

[isaacs]

Someone else pinged me about the same thing, so just further validation that this is legitimately confusing.

Landed in 10.1.0, '' will never be returned now, only '.'.

[mrmlnc]

Sorry to keep you waiting. I keep thinking that in most cases this is extra information for the user, but I have a similar request in fast-glob (mrmlnc/fast-glob#47) and I am also going to implement it in the near future.