url.format does not have same behavior for pathnames with and without slashes

[beck]

Using Node@9.9 on OSX.

Problem

url.format returns an usable result when pathname is not slash prefixed:

> const url = require('url')
> url.format({hostname: 'dougbeck.me', pathname: 'womp.html'})
'dougbeck.mewomp.html'

Expectation

pathname is treated the same with or without the leading / (slash)

Conversation started here: nodejs/help#1176

[mithunsasidharan]

@beck From what I understand looking at the code, adding missing FORWARD_SLASH logic only applies to slashedProtocol like http, https and so on. So if we pass the protocol to format like below it handles it well :

> const url = require('url')
> url.format({protocol: 'http', hostname: 'dougbeck.com', pathname: 'womp.html'})
'http://dougbeck.com/womp.html'

One solution is to take out the logic to add missing FORWARD_SLASH from the slashedProtocol condition and make it generic. I'd like to get more inputs before going ahead with the PR. @addaleax

[apapirovski]

I'm not sure about this one... There are protocols that don't have slashes before pathname (e.g. mailto). I suppose we could check that hostname & pathname exist but given that the legacy url stuff is meant to be frozen, I don't know how I feel about it.

[beck]

the legacy url stuff is meant to be frozen

👍I'm cool with this being labeled confirmed and wontfix.

If anyone else stumbles upon this, this is the helper I used to give me the API I desired.

[mithunsasidharan]

@apapirovski @beck : Passing the protocol along is probably the safe thing to do. Given its the legacy stuff, I agree that probably it can be left as is.

[lpinca]

Another option is to use slashes:

url.format({ slashes: true, hostname: 'dougbeck.com', pathname: 'womp.html' })

or url.URL as already suggested in nodejs/help#1176.

[lpinca]

Closing, let me know if it should stay open.