Express 5: Route wildcard "(.*)" throw new TypeError in path-to-regexp

[infuzz]

Environment information

Version:

json
"dependencies": {
  "express": "^5.1.0"
}

Platform:
Linux vm188 5.15.143-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 5.15.143-1 (2024-02-08T18:12Z) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Node.js version:
v23.11.0

Any other relevant information:
path-to-regexp (included in Express 5)
Reproducible in minimal test case

What steps will reproduce the bug?

When using a wildcard route (.*) in Express 5, the server crashes with:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.get('(.*)', (req, res) => res.send('Wildcard route'));
app.listen(3000);

Console Error is:

/srv/nodejs/express5-wildcard-test/node_modules/path-to-regexp/dist/index.js:123
        throw new TypeError(`Unexpected ${nextType} at ${index}, expected ${type}: ${DEBUG_URL}`);

[krzysdz]

If you want to match anything (including just /) in Express 5 use '/{*splat}'. Express 5 depends on path-to-regexp@8, which uses a different path syntax than in Express 4.x and beta versions of 5.0 ((.*) was suggested in 5.0.0-beta.1).

Current path syntax is described in:

• Express 5 migration guide: https://expressjs.com/en/guide/migrating-5.html#path-syntax
• path-to-regexp readme: https://github.com/pillarjs/path-to-regexp/blob/v8.2.0/Readme.md

You can also see how Express handles different paths in 4.x and 5.x in playground: https://bjohansebas.github.io/playground-router/

[infuzz]

ok, I was trying to follow 5.x API reference that describe the (.*) syntax.

Thank you @krzysdz for your help and to have pointed me to this new syntax, and thank you to for the playground link, very usefull.

[krzysdz]

I was trying to follow 5.x API reference that describe the (.*) syntax.

Oops, thanks for pointing that!