docs: explain why path.posix.normalize does not replace windows slashes

[JestDotty]

• Version: 4.4.2
• Platform: Windows 8.1 64 bit
• Subsystem: node.js native path module

---

console.log('1', path.posix.normalize("\\some\\thing\\like\\this"))
console.log('2', path.posix.normalize("/some/thing/like/this"))
console.log('3', path.win32.normalize("\\some\\thing\\like\\this"))
console.log('4', path.win32.normalize("/some/thing/like/this"))

output:

1 output should be the same as 2s though
Docs need to explain why this is the expected output

[vsemozhetbyt]

If I get this right, win32 methods can process both separators, while posix methods don't consider \ a valid separator. Compare how other win32 methods parse paths with / properly, while the posix methods do not this for \:

const path = require('path');

const win32ToPosix = '\\win32\\to\\posix';
const posixToWin32 = '/posix/to/win32';

console.log(`
  ${path.posix.basename(win32ToPosix)}
  ${path.win32.basename(posixToWin32)}

  ${path.posix.dirname(win32ToPosix)}
  ${path.win32.dirname(posixToWin32)}

  ${path.posix.normalize(win32ToPosix)}
  ${path.win32.normalize(posixToWin32)}

  ${JSON.stringify(path.posix.parse(win32ToPosix))}
  ${JSON.stringify(path.win32.parse(posixToWin32))}

  ${path.posix.resolve(win32ToPosix)}
  ${path.win32.resolve(posixToWin32)}
`);

c:\>node test.js

  \win32\to\posix
  win32

  .
  /posix/to

  \win32\to\posix
  \posix\to\win32

  {"root":"","dir":"","base":"\\win32\\to\\posix","ext":"","name":"\\win32\\to\\posix"}
  {"root":"/","dir":"/posix/to","base":"win32","ext":"","name":"win32"}

  c:\/\win32\to\posix
  c:\posix\to\win32

c:\>

[bnoordhuis]

Answered. Closing, working as intended.

[JestDotty]

the docs say:

When multiple, sequential path segment separation characters are found (e.g. / on POSIX and \ on Windows), they are replaced by a single instance of the platform specific path segment separator. Trailing separators are preserved.

which is a little weird so I skimmed it with my understanding, but for postarity this this doesn't work either:

console.log('1', path.posix.normalize("\\\\some\\\\thing\\\\like\\\\this"))
console.log('2', path.posix.normalize("/\\some/\\thing/\\like/\\this"))

To be fair it is vague enough to have concluded to my understanding... but on a more conceptual/abstract/module angle a conversion looking like this is intended / not available in a path manipulation library or am I missing something?

path.normalize(file).split(/[\\\/]/g).join(path.posix.sep)

[addaleax]

@Seudein On POSIX, \\ is not a path separator, so I think path.posix.normalize is right in that /\ shouldn’t get contracted into a single /… what would your expected output for that be?

[refack]

Maybe we need a posix2windows / windows2posix methods

[addaleax]

@refack Sorry, could you explain how those methods would behave?

[refack]

@refack Sorry, could you explain how those methods would behave?

posix2windows would assume the input is a posix path and flip the /
(then do some voodoo to try and find on which drive the file exists [or not])

windows2posix would assume that the input is windows and make sure all \ are turned into /

I think what @Seudein assumed was that using path.posix.* on a windows platform will act like windows2posix

---

Answered. Closing, working as intended.

@bnoordhuis I believe that if a user open an issue based on wrong assumptions that are not addressed in the docs, it should be treated as a bug in the docs.

[refack]

Reopened as a doc bug

[addaleax]

then do some voodoo to try and find on which drive the file exists

path methods generally don’t actually query the file system, I would like to keep it that way.

[refack]

I would like to keep it that way.

I agree. Super important!
I was sarcastic, I was hoping the huge emoji and [or not] would convey that, sorry...