CommonJS globals permitted for ES module builds with no compiler error.

🔎 Search Terms

nodenext, module, __dirname

🕗 Version & Regression Information

Version 5.4.5

⏯ Playground Link

No response

💻 Code

package.json

"type": "module"

tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "NodeNext"
  },
  "include": ["src"]
}

file.ts

console.log(__dirname)

🙁 Actual behavior

No compiler error, but this causes a runtime error in Node:

ReferenceError: __dirname is not defined in ES module scope

🙂 Expected behavior

That the compiler issues an error similar to the inverse situation.

For example, when targeting CommonJS:

package.json

"type": "commonjs"

file.ts

console.log(import.meta.dirname)

The compiler issues the following error:

error TS1470: The 'import.meta' meta-property is not allowed in files which will build into CommonJS output.

Additional information about the issue

Perhaps there is a good reason for this that I'm not understanding, but I would think tsc should issue an error or warning for any syntax that would produce a runtime error.

Here is a more complete example: https://github.com/knightedcodemonkey/tsc-module-globals

• npm install
• npm run esm (note no compile error but the output causes a runtime error)
• npm run cjs (note there is a compile error)

Reproduce the issue with package.json, tsconfig.json, and file.ts using the referenced npm run esm and npm run cjs commands. Compare the existing CommonJS import.meta diagnostic with the ES module __dirname case; done means the NodeNext ES module build reports the invalid CommonJS global before runtime.