`process.execArgv` does not include `--watch` or `--watch-path` options or their values on Windows

[sangafabrice]

Version

v24.11.0

Platform

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19045.0 x64

Subsystem

process

What steps will reproduce the bug?

1. Create a build.js file:

/** @file build.js */
import { execArgv } from "node:process";
console.warn(execArgv);

2. Create an empty file named template.html (content does not matter).

3. Run the following command:

(node --watch-path=template.html build.js & node --watch-path template.html build.js & node --watch build.js) > /dev/null

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always reproducible when --watch or --watch-path options are specified on the node command line.

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

Expected output:

[ '--watch-path=template.html' ]
[ '--watch-path', 'template.html' ]
[ '--watch' ]

According to Node.js documentation, process.execArgv should contain the Node options passed before the script name.

What do you see instead?

[]
[]
[]

Additional information

Bash is installed on my Windows system. I used it in the reproduction steps because it makes it easier to chain blocking commands and run them in the background compared to PowerShell or Command Prompt.
Press Ctrl+C to terminate all background processes at once.

[sangafabrice]

Node.js v25.1.0 (Current version) produces a similar result: the arrays are not empty, but the --watch and --watch-path options and their values are still not included.

[marco-ippolito]

I think it has always been like this. the spawned process does not contain the watch flag because they are stripped to avoid recursively watching. @pmarchini I dont know if its possible to include them

[Han5991]

@marco-ippolito

#60665

The watch launcher still strips the flags before spawning the child so we avoid recursive watching, but it now stores them in NODE_WATCH_ARGS and passes that env
var to the child. During bootstrap the child parses/remove that env var and prepends the recovered flags to process.execArgv. This way user code can once again read
--watch / --watch-path without re‑enabling the recursive watch behavior you warned about.