Using '**' in a GlobPattern does not match any number of path segments in Windows

[allileong]

• VSCode Version: 1.30.0 and also 1.31.0-insiders
• OS Version: 17763.107

I have tested this issue on both Mac and Windows and have only seen the unexpected behavior in Windows.

I would like to create a FileSystemWatcher to watch all file changes that are a variable number of levels deep inside of a specified directory. To create the globPattern passed to the vscode.workspace.createFileSystemWatcher() method I followed this documentation: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensionAPI/vscode-api#GlobPattern.

On Mac, the globString looks like:
/Users/example.user/Documents/projects/my-vscode-project/{force-app,another-app}/**

On Windows, the globString looks like:
c:\Users\exampleuser\Desktop\my-vscode-project\{force-app,another-app}\**

My example project has a structure like so:

my-vscode-project
|-- force-app
.........|-- example-file-one-level-deep.js
.........|-- main
.................|-- default
.........................|-- example-file-three-levels-deep.js
|-- another-app
........|-- another-example-file-one-level-deep.js

On Mac, changes made to example-file-one-level-deep.js, example-file-three-levels-deep.js, and another-example-file-one-level-deep.js all trigger the fileWatcher.onDidChange() listener, and this is the behavior that I would expect.

On Windows, only changes made to files directly inside of force-app and another-app trigger the fileWatcher.onDidChange() listener. Files nested more than one level deep will not trigger the change listener. In other words, changing example-file-one-level-deep.js and another-example-file-one-level-deep.js will trigger the change listener, but changing example-file-three-levels-deep.js will not.

I am creating the globString and FileSystemWatcher like so:

const packageDirectoryPaths = ['force-app', 'another-app'];
const globString = path.join(
    vscode.workspace!.workspaceFolders![0].uri.fsPath;,
    `{${packageDirectoryPaths.join(',')}}`,
    '**'
);
vscode.workspace.createFileSystemWatcher(globString);

Please let me know if I have misunderstood how to create the correct globString. This behavior is unfortunately blocking forcedotcom/salesforcedx-vscode#822 from moving forward.

Thanks!

[bpasero]

@allileong let me guess, you are not getting an event for your file when a delete happens in a parent folder?

[allileong]

@bpasero, what do you mean by 'parent folder'? In the above example, if I delete example-file-one-level-deep.js whose parent folder is force-app, then I am getting an event for the deletion.

[bpasero]

@allileong trying to find out if this is a duplicate of #60813 or #65077. We have an optimization in place that will report a delete or rename of a folder as a single event on that folder and not for each file that is below that folder.

[allileong]

@bpasero, this issue seems to be similar in that '**' is not successfully matching on parent directories, but it doesn't seem to be a direct duplicate of those issues since this issue is affecting the file create, change, and delete events alike rather than just delete events.

[bpasero]

@allileong you cannot use \ in glob patterns, it has to be / for a valid glob pattern. For your case it is easier to use our RelativePattern support:

const watcher = vscode.workspace.createFileSystemWatcher(new vscode.RelativePattern(vscode.workspace!.workspaceFolders![0], `{${packageDirectoryPaths.join(',')}}/**`));

[allileong]

@bpasero Thank you for the info. RelativePattern with / works for me. I had made incorrect the assumption that I needed to use the backslash for Windows.