Some tests are not fully CWD-agnostic

[LiviaMedeiros]

Version

v26.0.0-pre

Platform

Linux tumba 6.18.3-gentoo-yuran #1 SMP Sun Jan  4 21:50:21 +08 2026 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Subsystem

test

What steps will reproduce the bug?

# cd /
# git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/nodejs/node.git
# cd node
# ./configure && make test-only

In realistic scenarios, cd / is implicit: for example, right after chroot or pivot_root into disposable environment.

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always.

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

All tests are expected to pass.

What do you see instead?

A bunch of failing tests. Assertions are failing with something like:

+   '(node:*) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection. This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). To terminate the node process on unhandled promise rejection, use the CLI flag `--unhandled-rejections=strict` (see https:*js.org*api*cli.html#cli_unhandled_rejections_mode). (rejection id: 1)\n'
-   '(node:*) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection. This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). To terminate the node process on unhandled promise rejection, use the CLI flag `--unhandled-rejections=strict` (see https:*nodejs.org*api*cli.html#cli_unhandled_rejections_mode). (rejection id: 1)\n'

   'Error: an error!\n' +
+   '    at functionD (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:16:17)\n' +
+   '    at functionC (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:10:3)\n' +
+   '    at functionB (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:6:3)\n' +
+   '    at functionA (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:2:3)\n' +
+   '    at Object.<anonymous> (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:24:3)\n' +
-   '    at functionD (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:16:17)\n' +
-   '    at functionC (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:10:3)\n' +
-   '    at functionB (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:6:3)\n' +
-   '    at functionA (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:2:3)\n' +
-   '    at Object.<anonymous> (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site.js:24:3)\n' +
    'Error: an error!\n' +
+   '    at functionD (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:156)\n' +
+   '    at functionC (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:97)\n' +
+   '    at functionB (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:60)\n' +
+   '    at functionA (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:26)\n' +
+   '    at Object.<anonymous> (*/test/fixtures/source-map*_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:199)\n'
-   '    at functionD (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:156)\n' +
-   '    at functionC (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:97)\n' +
-   '    at functionB (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:60)\n' +
-   '    at functionA (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:26)\n' +
-   '    at Object.<anonymous> (*/test/fixtures/source-map/node_modules/error-stack/enclosing-call-site-min.js:1:199)\n'

Additional information

The reason is that the tests simply remove matches to process.cwd(). In the examples above, CWD being /node corrupts http://nodejs.org and /node_modules.
Obviously there are other directories that may break tests, e.g. /test.

List of tests :

• test/parallel/test-node-output-v8-warning.mjs
• test/parallel/test-node-output-vm.mjs
• test/parallel/test-node-output-console.mjs
• test/parallel/test-node-output-sourcemaps.mjs
• test/parallel/test-node-output-errors.mjs

Also the most edge case is CWD being /, assuming no conflict with /lib. In this case, additional failing tests are:

• test/parallel/test-cli-permission-deny-fs.js - has skips if founds itself in /etc but doesn't check if it's even worse.
• test/es-module/test-esm-import-meta.mjs - uses regexps that assume that leading / and /test... are not overlapped.

All of the above might be a valid good first issue Issues that are suitable for first-time contributors. material.

---

And then there are at least these tests in test-runner that validate test output, using common/assertSnapshot.js to normalize it:

• test/test-runner/test-output-abort-runs-after-hook.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-abort-hooks.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-abort-suite.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-abort.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-filtered-suite-throws.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-default-output.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-global-after-should-fail-the-test.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-source-mapped-locations.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-describe-it.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-test-runner-plan.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-hooks.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-test-timeout-flag.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-output.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-unfinished-suite-async-error.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-test-timeout-flag-with-test.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-timeout-in-before-each.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-test-runner-plan-timeout.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-lcov-reporter.mjs
• test/test-runner/test-output-output-cli.mjs

Adjusting them individually would be an exercise in futility, so it's just an extra in case of bright ideas on making transformations from assertSnapshot more strict&robust and unify test-node-output-* as well.

[monam2]

Hi! I'd like to try working on this issue, if that's okay.

[MikeMcC399]

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) states in https://specifications.freedesktop.org/fhs/latest/rootFilesystem.html#rootPurpose

Applications must never create or require special files or subdirectories in the root directory. Other locations in the FHS hierarchy provide more than enough flexibility for any package.

so I'm not sure if it would be a valid repro scenario to be testing in the Linux root location /.

[gambare2]

Hi, I investigated this and it looks like the root problem is that test output normalization blindly removes process.cwd(), which causes unintended string corruption (e.g. /node stripping parts of nodejs.org).

Would you be open to a small, scoped fix that only normalizes filesystem paths (instead of raw string replacement), possibly starting with test-node-output-* tests?