On windows, cannot watch files with some glob patterns

[meteorlxy]

const chokidar = require('chokidar')
const path = require('path')

const pagesWatcher = chokidar.watch([
  path.join(__dirname, 'watchdir/**/*.md')
], {
  ignoreInitial: true
})

const log = () => {
  console.log('triggered')
}

pagesWatcher.on('add', log)
pagesWatcher.on('unlink', log)
pagesWatcher.on('change', log)
  

Works well on Ubuntu, but logs nothing on Windows

[es128]

path.join(__dirname, 'watchdir/**/*.md')

Can't do that on Windows as it will introduce backslash path separators to your glob pattern, which is invalid. It's unnecessary anyway. You can just watch 'watchdir/**/*.md', or use the cwd option if you need to.

[meteorlxy]

@es128
Sorry but I want to watch some other absolute paths that should be passed in, not the __dirname indeed.

E.g:

const sourceDir = '[An absolute path that passed by other script]'
const pagesWatcher = chokidar.watch([
  path.join(sourceDir , 'watchdir/**/*.md')
], {
  ignoreInitial: true
})

[es128]

Then make sure sourceDir uses forward-slash path separators. You cannot combine backslash paths with globs. Backlashes are reserved in globs for escaping special characters.

[es128]

Also cwd: sourceDir in the options may be an easy solution.

[meteorlxy]

@es128
The sourceDir is processed by path.resolve.
And the path.join will resolve the slash correctly, too.

Results like:

• E:\Projects\meteorlxy\vuepress\docs\**\*.md

[es128]

notice the backslashes in the result? invalid glob.

Don't use path.join with globs.