nodejs / nodejs/node

Prevent native Error class hi-jacking in FS errors

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#40,232 2 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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errors
Dominant language
JavaScript
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Description

Version

v16.9.0

Platform

Linux vagrant-docker 4.19.0-6-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.67-2+deb10u2 (2019-11-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Subsystem

fs

What steps will reproduce the bug?

In the current state of the promises section of the native fs module, when an error occurs, the native type Error is hi-jacked and a code property is being added to the error object.

This can easily be reproduced with the following code:

import { promises as FileSystem } from "fs";

try
{
    FileSystem.stat("/a/path/leading/to/nothing");
}
catch (error)
{
    console.log(Object.getPrototypeOf(error); // Will display the native class "Error"
    console.log(Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors(error); // Will display the added code property that isn't native to Error.
}
How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

No required conditions outside of the use of the fs native module.

What is the expected behavior?

This isn't a bug per-se but is a bad practice. A custom error of type FileSystemError should be thrown instead of hi-jacking the Error class to dynamically add a property to the object.
This behavior leads to problematic linting and testing with super-sets such as TypeScript or Eslint. Since code is not a native property of Error and dynamic property setting is often considered bad practice, it leads to situations where handling those specific issues requires extra effort to circumvent this design.

What do you see instead?

No response

Additional information

Ideally a custom FileSystemError should be created such as (Typescript example for types clarity):

class FileSystemError extends Error
{
    public code: string; // Ideally should be an enum listing all the possible values.
}

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the native fs promises path used by FileSystem.stat when it reports a missing path, then inspect how the current Error object receives its code property. Done means errors use a dedicated filesystem error type with the needed code information, with tests covering the promises API behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
backend, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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