macOS: Changes to node_modules folder are ignored

[Aaaaash]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.56.2
• OS Version: macOS BigSur 11.2.3

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open Node.js project
2. Execute npm install in terminal
3. node_modules is not shown in Explorer side bar.

It seems to be by designed for performance reasons #23954

Actually there is a difference between Windows and macOS/Linux: we ignore /node_modules/ but that should actually not ignore changes to the node_modules folder itself. The real issue here is that our glob library is matching node_modules for a pattern of /node_modules/ when it should not.

For now, files.watcherExclude has different default value for Windows and macOS/Linux.

Windows

"**/node_modules/*/**": true

macOS/Linux

"**/node_modules/**": true,

I recommend using the new default setting on macOS/Linux

"**/node_modules/**/*": true

[vscodebot[bot]]

(Experimental duplicate detection) Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• search.exclude does not work for searching symbols across a workspace (#46718)
• files.watcherExclude setting is not working in multi-root workspace (#40898)
• Find in Folder not working if the folder is excluded in setting (#68970)
• Allow to set explorer.autoReveal per specific folder (#87956)

[bpasero]

Reproduces only when the lock files exist top level, otherwise we refresh the explorer because the lock files appear.

[bpasero]

I first have to understand why we decided to not update the glob for macOS/Linux, there was a reason...

[isidorn]

@bpasero are the file events simply missing? Can I help from the Explorer side?

[bpasero]

@isidorn well for some historic reason we decided to exclude file events on node_modules folder but only on macOS and Linux, so when you do an npm install the folder does not become visible in some cases. I think the explorer is not doing anything wrong, it is just our default watcher exclude glob pattern being quite restrictive.

[bpasero]

Here are some findings how the exclude setting is used:

Windows We use a C# based file watcher that reports every file change unfiltered. We do the filtering using our (!) glob library in the renderer.

macOS/Linux: folder workspace We use chokidar and pass the excludes directly to the library as ignored patterns. This bypasses our glob library and relies on anymatch: https://github.com/paulmillr/chokidar#path-filtering

macOS/Linux: multi-root workspace We use nsfw watcher library. Similar to Windows, that library reports every change unfiltered. We do filtering in our glob library.

Remote Server We use chokidar but do not pass the excludes to the library. We do filtering in our glob library. @aeschli I think you added this, please be aware that we may be changing the default watcherExclude setting slightly to report changes on the node_modules folder (not all, just the top level folders).

[isidorn]

Why don't we also exclude file events on node_modules on windows? Because the file watching works best on that platform?

I think the ideal experience is that when an user does an npm install that the node_modules folder becomes visible, but the file changes inside of it are being ignored...

[bpasero]

@isidorn we do filter on Windows, the change in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/23954 was specifically to keep the filtering as it was but allow for changes to the node_modules folder itself to not be filtered. Basically what we want is:

• ignore any file event in modules of the node modules folder because they can be rather large
• show changes to the node modules folder itself (what this issue is about)
• possibly show changes to direct children of the node modules folder

The last point would help in the case where a user does yarn add xy and has the node modules folder expanded to see changes coming in. But I would say that is a nice to have, more importantly we need to make sure the node modules folder itself appears when it does.

[bpasero]

Verification (macOS, or Linux):

• open an empty folder and add a package.json with some dependencies
• run npm install once
• verify the explorer shows the changes
• delete node_modules folder
• run npm install again
• verify the folder appears

[isidorn]

Works fine. Even folders inside node_modules appear -> verified