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

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

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:\>

Answered. Closing, working as intended.

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)

@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?

Maybe we need a posix2windows / windows2posix methods

@refack

@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.

Reopened as a doc bug

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.

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...

doc: improve path.posix.normalize docs

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docs: explain why path.posix.normalize does not replace windows slashes #12298

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docs: explain why path.posix.normalize does not replace windows slashes #12298

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vsemozhetbyt commented on Apr 10, 2017

bnoordhuis commented on Apr 10, 2017

JestDotty commented on Apr 10, 2017

addaleax commented on Apr 10, 2017

refack commented on Apr 10, 2017

addaleax commented on Apr 10, 2017

refack commented on Apr 10, 2017

refack commented on Apr 10, 2017

addaleax commented on Apr 10, 2017

refack commented on Apr 10, 2017

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