pnpm module resolution errors (on Windows)

[callumevans]

I'm seeing some issues resolving pnpm packages, specifically on Windows, via the Go API.

I'm not entirely sure it's the same issue as mentioned in https://github.com/evanw/esbuild/issues/67, but I'm able to reproduce it from the example given there (https://github.com/timsuchanek/esbuild-pnpm).

Given the following Go code (where C:/Users/callu/Desktop/esbuild-pnpm/index.js is the cloned repo mentioned in #67):

	workingDirectory, _ := os.Getwd()

	result := api.Build(api.BuildOptions{
		EntryPoints: []string{"C:/Users/callu/Desktop/esbuild-pnpm/index.js"},
		Bundle:      true,
		Write:       true,
		Format:      api.FormatCommonJS,
		Platform:    api.PlatformNode,
		Target:      api.ES2015,
		Sourcemap:   api.SourceMapLinked,
		Metafile:    true,
		GlobalName:  "exports",
		Outdir:      filepath.Join(workingDirectory, ".output"),
		LogLevel:    api.LogLevelVerbose,
	})

With the verbose output, I'm getting the following:

♦ [VERBOSE] Resolving import "chalk" in directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm" of type "require-call"

  Checking for package alias matches
    Failed to find any package alias matches
  Read 8 entries for directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm"
  Searching for "chalk" in "node_modules" directories starting from "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm"
    Parsed package name "chalk" and package subpath "."
    Checking for a package in the directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk"
    Read 8 entries for directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm"
    Read 5 entries for directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules"
    The file "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk\\package.json" exists
    Read 5 entries for directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk"
    Attempting to load "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk" as a file
      Checking for file "chalk"
      Found file "chalk"
  Read 5 entries for directory "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules"
  Primary path is "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk" in namespace "file"

● [DEBUG] Failed to read file "C:\\Users\\callu\\Desktop\\esbuild-pnpm\\node_modules\\chalk": read C:\Users\callu\Desktop\esbuild-pnpm\node_modules\chalk: Incorrect function.

X [ERROR] Cannot read file "../../../Users/callu/Desktop/esbuild-pnpm/node_modules/chalk": Incorrect function.

    ../../../Users/callu/Desktop/esbuild-pnpm/index.js:1:22:
      1 │ const chalk = require('chalk')
        ╵                       ~~~~~~~

Something tells me this is a me-problem, although I've been able to replicate this in other contexts.

It works great if I just use an npm install - no issues whatsoever. With a pnpm install, I start seeing the above errors.

This also seems to be Windows-specific. Works fine on macOS.

I've tried various tweaks to the api.Build config, but haven't managed to get it working consistently.

[hyrious]

Base on your log above, it seems the problem is that esbuild did not try to resolve symlinks created by pnpm on Windows. The correct log should be like:

  Searching for "chalk" in "node_modules" directories starting from "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937"
    Parsed package name "chalk" and package subpath "."
    Checking for a package in the directory "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\chalk"
    Read 9 entries for directory "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937"
    Read 5 entries for directory "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules"
+   Resolved symlink "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\chalk" to "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\chalk"
    The file "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\chalk\\package.json" exists
    Read 4 entries for directory "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\chalk"
    Looking for "." in "exports" map in "D:\\a\\esbuild-3937\\esbuild-3937\\node_modules\\chalk\\package.json"
      Checking path "" against target "./source/index.js"
        Joined "" to "./source/index.js" to get "./source/index.js"
      ...

The above log was generated from a windows machine on github actions. Maybe you are just using old versions of esbuild and pnpm?

[evanw]

The file system on Windows has multiple roots (volume labels) while the file system on Unix has a single root (just /). I'm aware that this is problematic with some of esbuild's Yarn support (Yarn actually allows ../ to traverse between different volumes on Windows while Windows doesn't, and esbuild doesn't support that yet).

It's possible that cross-volume paths are the problem here. If that's the case, the reproduction steps would require spreading your source code across multiple volumes, and a possible workaround could be to make sure your source code is all on the same volume. Or if that workaround doesn't work then that wasn't the problem.

I'm sorry that I can't test this myself but I don't have easy access to a Windows machine.

[callumevans]

Appreciate the response on this - apologies for not getting back in a timely manner.

I've written this off as Windows being a bit ... unique.

I've tried the same stuff on Linux and it works fine. Assuming it's something strange with how my specific Windows machine was behaving.