Negation not working when pattern begins with !

[forty8bits]

Beginning a pattern with ! seems to be broken. The result actually matches the non-negated pattern... so for example:

glob('!package.json', function(err, res)...

returns res as ['package.json'], whereas

glob('./!(package.json)', function(err, res)...

returns an array containing all files/directories in the cwd except package.json, as expected.

[isaacs]

Yep, this is a bug.

[isaacs]

It's not property respecting the this.minimatch.negate flag, which should flip all the comparisons.

[kschzt]

@isaacs something like !(node_modules) should also list the entire tree, except for node_modules. This case is being incorrectly switched to https://github.com/isaacs/node-glob/blob/master/glob.js#L335 .. It then tries to stat '(node_modules)', which doesn't exist, and returns nothing. Easy to catch via https://github.com/isaacs/node-glob/blob/master/test/00-setup.js#L103

[sindresorhus]

👍

[passy]

👍

[SBoudrias]

👍

[sheerun]

So what about it?

[isaacs]

Patch welcome.

[bcardarella]

@isaacs I believe I have found the cause of the issue but need guidance on how best to fix.

https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch/blob/master/minimatch.js#L237-L242
In minimatch: for any pattern that does not begin with a "!" the for loop is never run so the pattern is never marked as "negated". During the parse function the pattern is iterated over for any !s and will stringSub ^ to negate that pattern: https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch/blob/master/minimatch.js#L553

parse never uses the negate flag to flip the pattern. This is why ./(!whatever) works but !(whatever) doesn't.

There could be two solutions:

1. The easiest is to just remove parseNegate all together. This might be ideal as the parse function seems to be better about where to negate. the makeRe function doesn't seem to be used, but it does respect the negate flag: https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch/blob/master/minimatch.js#L806. So makeRe could be removed
2. Refactor parse to use makeRe and respect the negate flag.

Thoughts on how to approach? I can work on the fix either way.

[bcardarella]

@isaacs I'm going to try to implement options 2 as the README seems to imply that makeRe is supposed to be used anyway.

[bcardarella]

Although now I'm confused. Upon further inspection this commit: isaacs/minimatch@b458f5d is from 2 and half years ago is when makeRe was removed from use in favor of parse. The commit message only mentions a "rewrite". Not really sure which is the best path to take. It seems that parse and makeRe are duplicating effort