ENOENT error message inconsistencies

[vsemozhetbyt]

• Version: 8.0.0-rc.0
• Platform: Windows 7 x64
• Subsystem: errors, fs, libuv, process

Currently, most of the ENOENT error messages have a similar signature:

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, [call] '/full/path/to/filename'

For example:

fs.accessSync('does-not-exist'); // etc...

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, chmod '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, link '...does-not-exist' -> '...does-not-exist2'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, lstat '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, readlink '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, rename '...does-not-exist' -> '...does-not-exist2'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, rmdir '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, unlink '...does-not-exist'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, utime '...does-not-exist'

I've stumbled upon 2 cases that have different and somehow confusing signatures:

1. Different order, no description, filename without quotes, no full path:

fs.watch('does-not-exist');
// Error: watch does-not-exist ENOENT

2. No file name / path at all (the call name can be wrongly considered as the file name):

process.chdir('does-not-exist');
// Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, uv_chdir

Are these cases worth unification? Can they be addressed in Node.js or they are libuv features?

[targos]

I think it is worth unification.

[aastikta28]

Hi @targos ,

Is this being worked upon? Can I take it?

[joyeecheung]

@aastikta28 I don't think it's being actively worked on. To summary:

• Fixing process.chdir involves updating the ThrowUVException call in Chdir in src/node.cc to ThrowUVException(err, "chdir", nullptr, *path, nullptr). Ideally you can even update that to take a context and use errors.uvException to generate the errors in the JS land but that would be a bigger undertake.
• Fixing fs.watch would involve updating node_stat_watcher.cc to throw an error with the one generated by the C++ UVException function in src/node.cc, or better, updating it to take a context and throw the error in JS land using the JS counterpart errors.uvException instead of errnoException, this requires a bit more work. (EDIT: it's fs_event_wrap.cc for fs.watch, node_stat_watcher.cc for fs.watchFile, also, node_stat_watcher.cc doest not even handle errors..)

Either way the C++ side of things must be updated, so I am not sure if this is a good first issue, if you are comfortable with C++ and the bindings then it certainly could be. I guess the process.chdir one should be trivial enough though if you choose to only update the C++ code without migrating that to errors.uvException. If you want to take it, feel free to ping me in the PR for reviews or mentoring. I am working on migrating the errors in fs but have not reached this part yet, would be happy to get a helping hand. If no one takes it I believe I will eventually get to this part anyway.

[joyeecheung]

Ah, also just realized this is a breaking change since it changes the error messages that are likely to be matched by the users, I am not sure if there are any popular modules that special-case for these errors. The fixes would need CITGM runs.

[aastikta28]

@joyeecheung Thanks for the wonderful explanation. It looks way more complicated than I thought. But, I can definitely get started on the trivial part of just updating the c++ code for process.chdir without any migration. How can I get started on that?

[joyeecheung]

@aastikta28 You can check out the contributing guide on general guidance for building Node, committing and submitting PRs. To fix the error message, replace this:

node/src/node.cc

Line 1625 in feaf6ac

return env->ThrowUVException(err, "uv_chdir");

with env->ThrowUVException(err, "chdir", nullptr, *path, nullptr) should be enough, this would

1. Display the syscall as chdir instead of uv_chdir
2. Display the path in the erorr message

You can learn more about how the error message is constructed by reading the code of UVException in src/node.cc.

[SirR4T]

Would like to take a shot at this, if no one else's taking it up.

[joyeecheung]

@SirR4T Heads up: I am currently working on fs.watch in the last batch of fs errors migrations, but I think process.chdir has not been taken.