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fs.watch(): EINVAL on Windows watching a root file #4643
Description
node.js: 4.2.1
OS: Win10
- have a file test.txt directly on C:
- try to watch it:
fs.watch("C:\\test.txt")
=>
> fs.watch("C:\\test.txt")
Error: watch C:\test.txt EINVAL
at exports._errnoException (util.js:874:11)
at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1239:19)
at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1267:11)
at repl:1:4
at REPLServer.defaultEval (repl.js:164:27)
at bound (domain.js:280:14)
at REPLServer.runBound [as eval] (domain.js:293:12)
at REPLServer.<anonymous> (repl.js:393:12)
at emitOne (events.js:82:20)
at REPLServer.emit (events.js:169:7)
Activity
mscdex commentedon Jan 12, 2016
/cc @nodejs/platform-windows
jorangreef commentedon Jan 12, 2016
When watching files, I think libuv actually creates a watch on the parent directory of the file (https://github.com/libuv/libuv/blob/v1.x/src/win/fs-event.c#L188), in this case
C:\\. Could that have something to do with it? Also, do you have appropriate permissions to accessC:\\?bpasero commentedon Jan 12, 2016
Yes, otherwise you will get an EPERM
orangemocha commentedon Jan 12, 2016
This looks like a bug in libuv. If the file is at the root, and we try split the path into a directory name and file name (https://github.com/libuv/libuv/blob/f1a13e9b4abe8c97768a1d38b12ca3766c8a9b34/src/win/fs-event.c#L198-L206), we end up with a directory name that doesn't have a trailing backslash, e.g.
\\?\C:. When passing that to CreateFile() Windows thinks we are trying to open the drive rather than the root directory. Adding a trailing backslash fixes the issue.I'll add this to my queue of fixes. If anyone else wants to open a PR to https://github.com/libuv/libuv, you are welcome to do so. Thanks for reporting this issue!
CxRes commentedon Mar 22, 2016
@saghul @seishun Has this change been upstreamed? I still have this problem with node 5.9.0.
saghul commentedon Mar 23, 2016
@CxRes It's part of libuv but not yet of any release. It will be part of the next one, which should happen by Node 6.0.
CxRes commentedon Mar 23, 2016
@saghul Thanks!
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0
deps: upgrade libuv to 1.9.0