EINVAL / EPERM error when running build script on Windows due to D:\System Volume Information

[ahmad-su]

Description

When trying to build the appworker thread using the build script (build-all or build-threads), I get either:

• EINVAL: invalid argument, stat 'D:\System Volume Information', or
• EPERM: operation not permitted, stat 'D:\System Volume Information' (when not running as administrator)

This occurs on Windows when building the Neo.mjs project.

---

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run npx neo-app@latest or initiate a build using the generated script (npm run build-all or npm run build-threads).

---

Cause

The script (likely through ContextModule.resolveDependencies) tries to access restricted system folders like D:\System Volume Information, which is not permitted.

---

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Node.js: v23.10
• Neo.mjs: latest
• Terminal: PowerShell

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Additional Info

It appears that Webpack is attempting to resolve .mjs files across the entire project directory, including protected system folders. This causes permission errors on Windows.

---

Log

neoapp buildThreads starting dist/production
assets by status 69.9 KiB [cached] 3 assets
orphan modules 202 KiB [orphan] 27 modules
runtime modules 3.37 KiB 8 modules
built modules 275 KiB [built]
  modules by path ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/core/*.mjs 21.3 KiB
    ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/core/Base.mjs 19.9 KiB [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/core/IdGenerator.mjs 1.39 KiB [built] [code generated]
  modules by path ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/util/*.mjs 10.1 KiB
    ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/util/Function.mjs 5.31 KiB [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/util/Array.mjs 4.76 KiB [built] [code generated]
  ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/worker/App.mjs + 24 modules 212 KiB [built] [code generated]
  ../../../ lazy ^\.\/.*\.mjs$ include: (?:\/%7C\\)app.mjs$ exclude: (?:\/%7C\\)no...(truncated) 160 bytes [built] [code generated]
  ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/remotes/Api.mjs 1.81 KiB [built] [code generated]
  ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/vdom/Helper.mjs + 3 modules 30.1 KiB [built] [code generated]

ERROR in ../../../ lazy ^\.\/.*\.mjs$ include: (?:\/%7C\\)app.mjs$ exclude: (?:\/%7C\\)node_modules strict namespace object
EINVAL: invalid argument, stat 'D:\System Volume Information'
caused by plugins in ContextModule.resolveDependencies
Error: EINVAL: invalid argument, stat 'D:\System Volume Information'
 @ ./node_modules/neo.mjs/src/worker/App.mjs 301:19-306:13

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What I’ve Tried

• Reinstall dependencies & rebuild as administrator npm i && npm run build-threads : leads to EINVAL err
• Filter out the system folder in neo.mjs/src/worker/App.mjs, but looks like it's not the case:

if (!path.includes('D:\\System')) {
    return import(
        /* webpackInclude: /(?:\/|\\)app.mjs$/ */
        /* webpackExclude: /(?:\/|\\)node_modules/ */
        /* webpackMode: "lazy" */
        `../../${path}.mjs`
    )
} 

Let me know if you need help reproducing it. Thanks

[ahmad-su]

Update: Running the build command on git bash didnt solve the issue

[tobiu]

@ahmad-su Without having Windows installed, I can sadly not help too much on this one (flying blind).

I am sure though, that the problem is the following regex comment: /* webpackInclude: /(?:\/|\\)app.mjs$/ */.
For / based file systems it does work fine, for \ it looks like it does not.

Let me explain what it is supposed to do:

For a webpack based build, the app worker => worker/App.mjs file is supposed to find all app.mjs files.

Inside the framework repo, it needs to go 2 folder levels up (repo root), and it can then find the target files inside the apps, examples & docs folder.

Inside a workspace, it needs to go 4 folder levels up, since neo is inside node_modules/neo.mjs/.

If it would try to go further up, there might be security related restrictions (permission denied).

The main idea is, that by fetching all app.mjs files, we do get split chunks & tree-shaking across multiple apps out of the box. E.g. if you would lazy-load a 2nd neo app into your website, there should be little overhead.

[ahmad-su]

Thanks for the insight @tobiu , the solution is just by nesting the project folder 1 level deeper. so ../.. will not accidentally go to D:
But I'm still curious to modify the App.mjs to make it work wherever I place the project.