esm causes an error in cypress runner in windows 7/10 but works ok in linux

[janusqa]

Current behavior:

Using esm in windows 7/10 causes cypress test runner to throw an error about the plugin file
When using command

node_modules/.bin/cypress open

error:

 Can't start server

The plugins file is missing or invalid.

Your pluginsFile is set to ....\cypress\plugins\index.js, but either the file is missing, it contains a syntax error, or threw an error when required. The pluginsFile must be a .js or .coffee file.

Please fix this, or set pluginsFile to false if a plugins file is not necessary for your project.

Error [ERR_UNKNOWN_STDIN_TYPE]: Unknown stdin file type

node_modules/.bin/cypress run however works successfully across linux/windows7/windows10

node_modules/.bin/cypress open works successfully in linux

Desired behavior:

node_modules/.bin/cypress open

should also work successfully on windows 7/10

Steps to reproduce: (app code and test code)

https://github.com/janusqa/janusqa-cypress-test-tiny-plugin3-esm
Run on windows using

node_modules/.bin/cypress open

Versions

Windows: 7/10
Cypress package version: 3.1.5
Cypress binary version: 3.1.5

[jennifer-shehane]

The default plugins import must export the config like below in order to be properly read by Cypress:

export default (on, config) => {}

Since the pluginsFile is set to cypress\plugins\index.js and the config for Cypress is not imported there, it is throwing this error.

If you want to update the default imported file, you can add pluginsFile to your cypress.json specifying the cypress\plugins\main.index.js file and I believe this should work.

[janusqa]

@jennifer-shehane
It does not work.
I am actually trying to do this, but with esm module
https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress-example-recipes/tree/master/examples/server-communication__seeding-database-in-node

Using ES modules import/export syntax in your plugins

adding "pluginsFile": "cypress/plugins/main.index.js" to cypress.json takes me back to original issue of import/export not supported across linux/windows. It gives error about using imports.

I can't pick up on anything special you would have done there.
https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress-example-recipes/tree/master/examples/server-communication__seeding-database-in-node

[chrisbreiding]

We'll have investigate this to figure out what's wrong. We'd like to support esm as a way to make import/export work.

Looks like this error is being thrown when the pluginsFile gets loaded:

Error [ERR_UNKNOWN_STDIN_TYPE]: Unknown stdin file type

A very quick investigation shows that it's probably related to the combination of Electron + Windows + esm.

[axcosta]

I use elementary OS 5.0 Juno (built on Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS / Linux 4.15.0-70-generic / GTK 3.22.30) and also getting the same error:

"Can't start server
The plugins file is missing or invalid.
Your pluginsFile is set to <project_folder_removed>/tests/e2e/plugins, but either the file is missing, it contains a syntax error, or threw an error when required. The pluginsFile must be a .js or .coffee file.
Please fix this, or set pluginsFile to false if a plugins file is not necessary for your project."

[jennifer-shehane]

Since this issue hasn't had activity in a while, we'll close the issue until we can confirm this is still happening. Please comment if there is new information to provide concerning the original issue and we'd be happy to reopen.

[marlonmarcello]

@jennifer-shehane this is till an issue and it's not related to Windows. Can we reopen it?
I am on a

• Mac
• Cypress 9.1.1
• Node v16.7.0

When trying to use ESM inside my plugins file I get this error:

Even the simplest of the setups still errors: