Clarification on behavior of dot directories

[brandonchinn178]

Tell us about your environment

• ESLint Version: v6.3.0
• Node Version: v12.8.1
• yarn Version: 1.17.3

What parser (default, Babel-ESLint, etc.) are you using?

@typescript-eslint/parser

Please show your full configuration:

Configuration

{
  "env": {
    "browser": true,
    "es6": true,
    "node": true
  },
  "extends": [
    "eslint:recommended",
    "plugin:prettier/recommended",
    "plugin:react/recommended",
    "plugin:@typescript-eslint/eslint-recommended",
    "plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended"
  ],
  "parser": "@typescript-eslint/parser",
  "plugins": ["@typescript-eslint", "simple-import-sort", "prettier"],
  "parserOptions": {
    "sourceType": "module"
  },
  "rules": {
    "indent": ["error", 2],
    "react/display-name": "off",
    "react/prop-types": "off",
    "react/react-in-jsx-scope": "off",
    "simple-import-sort/sort": "error",
    "@typescript-eslint/explicit-function-return-type": "off",
    "@typescript-eslint/member-delimiter-style": "off",
    "@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars": ["error", {
      "argsIgnorePattern": "^_$"
    }]
  },
  "globals": {
    "React": "writable"
  },
  "settings": {
    "react": {
        "version": "detect"
    }
  }
}

What did you do? Please include the actual source code causing the issue, as well as the command that you used to run ESLint.

What actually happened? Please include the actual, raw output from ESLint.

$ yarn eslint client/.storybook/config.js 

.../client/.storybook/config.js
  0:0  warning  File ignored because of a matching ignore pattern. Use "--no-ignore" to override

✖ 1 problem (0 errors, 1 warning)

What did you expect to happen?

client/.storybook/config.js should be linted

Are you willing to submit a pull request to fix this bug?

Sure?

More details

I see this comment: #4828 (comment)

Thanks. So this looks like a bug, we should be linting anything passed on the command line. We should fix that.

But it seems like that's not the case, from this test suite:

eslint/tests/lib/cli-engine.js

Lines 355 to 375 in 2204693

	it("should not check .hidden files if they are passed explicitly without --no-ignore flag", function() {
	engine = new CLIEngine({
	cwd: path.join(fixtureDir, "..")
	});
	var report = engine.executeOnFiles(["fixtures/files/.bar.js"]);
	assert.equal(report.results.length, 0);
	});
	it("should check .hidden files if they are passed explicitly with --no-ignore flag", function() {
	engine = new CLIEngine({
	ignore: false,
	cwd: path.join(fixtureDir, "..")
	});
	var report = engine.executeOnFiles(["fixtures/files/.bar.js"]);
	assert.equal(report.results.length, 1);
	assert.equal(report.results[0].messages.length, 0);
	});

The documentation doesn't seem very helpful. Searching for "dot files" doesn't help me, and the section on .eslintignore only mentions:

Lines preceded by ! are negated patterns that re-include a pattern that was ignored by an earlier pattern.

Even though I'm not ignoring anything. It's also weird that the message says File ignored because of a matching ignore pattern because I don't have a .eslintignore file in my project.

The weird part is that yarn eslint client/.storybook/ works. Can we get some clarification on this issue (and the expected behavior) in the docs and/or in the CLI?

Issues that I've already looked at:

• Warning for ignored files on linting #5623
• do not ignore files started with . by default #10341
• Can't pass dot/hidden files on command line #4828
• https://github.com/eslint/tsc-meetings/blob/430455a12366c4614f322734b38521ef12870251/notes/2018/2018-08-02.md#do-not-ignore-files-started-with--by-default
• add option to process folders/files whose name begin with a dot #10597

[mysticatea]

Thank you for your report.

Indeed, documentation is not enough.

The logic to ignore files has quirks for historical reason. I don't know the reason, but I found some quirks while I implemented #11546 and #12274. The following list is it.

• ESLint ignores /node_modules/*, /bower_components/*, and dotfiles by default.
• If a path is a glob pattern or a directory path rather than a file path, and the path starts with . or contains /., then ESLint doesn't ignore dotfiles.
• If --no-ignore is present, ESLint ignores --ignore-path, --ignore-pattern, and .eslintignore. This means ESLint ignores the files which match the default ignore patterns.
• But if --no-ignore is present, and a path is a file path rather than a glob pattern nor a directory path, then ESLint doesn't ignore the file even if the path matches the default ignore patterns.

---

Anyway, I'd like to recommend to configure to unignore dotfiles you want because ignoring dotfiles is essential behavior.

# .eslintignore
!.storybook

[brandonchinn178]

Yes, I can unignore manually, but I would like to echo what this person said: #10341 (comment)

It's weird that you use an ignore list to un-ignore things.

I would personally request the following changes:

1. Change the error message to mention whether the ignored file is due to a default, implicit ignore pattern
2. Update docs to include the minutiae you listed out
3. (optional) It would be amazing to add a dotpaths key to eslintrc that specifies dot files/directories that shouldn't be "auto-ignored".

Thanks!

[mysticatea]

I have the same comment. However, ignoring dotfiles is a common behavior.

About 1 and 2, PR is welcome.

About 3, you can do it once #12274 merged.

[snhardin]

Hello! I'd like to take a stab at this. I use ESLint a lot for work and would enjoy the opportunity to give back. Any pointers on where to focus my attention are appreciated.

[brandonchinn178]

@snhardin For 2, I would recommend editing this section with more details on the implicit ignore patterns eslint automatically applies (see @mysticatea's first comment). Also, the documentation says

File ignored because of your .eslintignore file. Use --no-ignore to override.

But the message shown is different

File ignored because of a matching ignore pattern. Use "--no-ignore" to override

See https://github.com/eslint/eslint/blob/master/lib/cli-engine/cli-engine.js#L293

For 1, it seems like the code tries to handle this, but the regex isn't good enough: it only matches /^\./, when the problem happens when a dot file/directory (e.g. client/.storybook/foo.js) occurs later on in the path. So it would probably mean fixing the regex

I can help with 3 after that PR gets closed, but if you get to it before me, go for it

[snhardin]

Hello everyone. Will be submitting a PR for this soon. Thank you for your patience. 🙂

[eslint-deprecated]

Unfortunately, it looks like there wasn't enough interest from the team
or community to implement this change. While we wish we'd be able to
accommodate everyone's requests, we do need to prioritize. We've found
that accepted issues failing to be implemented after 90 days tend to
never be implemented, and as such, we close those issues.
This doesn't mean the idea isn't interesting or useful, just that it's
not something the team can commit to.

Thanks for contributing to ESLint and we appreciate your understanding.

[kaicataldo]

Reopening this because we have an open PR for it.

[eslint-deprecated]

Unfortunately, it looks like there wasn't enough interest from the team
or community to implement this change. While we wish we'd be able to
accommodate everyone's requests, we do need to prioritize. We've found
that accepted issues failing to be implemented after 90 days tend to
never be implemented, and as such, we close those issues.
This doesn't mean the idea isn't interesting or useful, just that it's
not something the team can commit to.

Thanks for contributing to ESLint and we appreciate your understanding.