[BUG] Empty test result folders created when using toHaveScreenshot

[devkat]

Context:

• Playwright Version: 1.23.2
• Operating System: Linux, Mac

Code Snippet

await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot(…)

Describe the bug

When using toHaveScreenshot, Playwright creates an empty directory for the test under test-results, even if the test succeeds.

The cause is probably this line:

https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/blob/main/packages/playwright-test/src/testInfo.ts#L240

  outputPath(...pathSegments: string[]){
    fs.mkdirSync(this.outputDir, { recursive: true });

SnapshotHelper.constructor calls outputPath:

https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/blob/main/packages/playwright-test/src/matchers/toMatchSnapshot.ts#L129

    const inputFile = testInfo.outputPath(...inputPathSegments);

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command%E2%80%93query_separation

[drwpow]

I had to write a script to clean up empty folders after Playwright runs for this reason. In CI it doesn’t really matter too much, but locally it can be hard to find the snapshot diffs with all the empty folders.