CodeceptJS v4 cannot load config on Windows

[danielrentz]

CodeceptJS fails to load config file on Windows (tried in powershell and git bash):

$ pnpm codeceptjs run
Error: Failed to load config file C:\test\e2e\codecept.conf.js:
Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader.
On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'
    at loadConfigFile (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.9.0/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/config.js:272:15)
    at async Config.load (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.9.0/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/config.js:124:16)
    at async getConfig (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.9.0/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/command/utils.js:16:12)
    at async default (file:///C:/test/ui/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.9.0/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/command/run.js:19:16)
    at async Command.<anonymous> (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.9.0/node_modules/codeceptjs/bin/codecept.js:40:7)

passing a file URL fails as well:

$ pnpm codeceptjs run -c "file:///C:/test/e2e/codecept.config.js"
Error: Config file C:\test\e2e\file:\C:\test\e2e\codecept.config.js does not exist. Execute 'codeceptjs init' to create config

[danielrentz]

Same happens when loading plugins:

Error: Could not load plugin from 'C:\test\e2e\plugins\plugin.ts': Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'
    at loadPluginAsync (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.6.2/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js:688:11)
    at async createPlugins (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.6.2/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js:755:29)
    at async Container.create (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.6.2/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js:81:25)
    at async Codecept.init (file:///C:/test/e2e/node_modules/.pnpm/codeceptjs@4.0.2_@types+node@25.6.2/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/codecept.js:105:5)

[kobenguyent]

@danielrentz may you help check if #5595 resolves the windows issues?

[danielrentz]

@kobenguyent No it still crashes in line 262 of lib/config.js when loading codecept.config.js

        // Try ESM import first for JS files
        configModule = await import(configFile)

[kobenguyent]

@danielrentz thanks for testing. Maybe we have luck with this d735b33

[danielrentz]

@kobenguyent I just applied the entire patch (yesterday just the bits for lib/config.js), and it already fails in bin/codecept.js in "dynamicImport", where the absolute path check is missing, causing to resolve relative internal paths against cwd.

May I suggest to move the full check with "isWindows" and "isAbsolutePath" into an own util function and call it everywhere? It would not hurt but would increase safety if code places always expecting abolute paths would check them as well.

[danielrentz]

I found more places missing the "isAbsolute" path check:

• "loadPluginAsync" in lib/container.js (line 707)
• "runHooks" in lib/codecept.js (line 140)

After fixing these three places locally, the tests run again.

Strong argument for the util function, right? :)

[kobenguyent]

@danielrentz Indeed, thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking the same cause in the beginning just thought there are one or two places needed for those patches but turned out more. Utils is definitely a great approach though. 👍🏻

Really appreciated if you could test this out #5595

[danielrentz]

@kobenguyent It works!

Two remarks:

• In lib/codecept.js, the new import path from 'path' (line35) is now unused.
• The changes in test/unit/container_test.js do not make much sense, path.isAbsolute('../data/dummy_page.js') is always false.

[kobenguyent]

supposed to be fixed by https://github.com/codeceptjs/CodeceptJS/releases/tag/4.0.4. Closing for now. Don't hesitate to report back if something still broken. Thanks!