fix(filesystem): normalizePath returns 'C:.' for bare Windows drive letters #3418

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1. xXMrNidaXx commented on Feb 28, 2026

   

   xXMrNidaXx

   on Feb 28, 2026

   More actions

   Confirmed — this is a classic Windows path edge case that bites a lot of Node.js code.

   Why path.normalize('C:') returns C:.:

   On Windows, C: means "current directory on the C: drive" (relative), while C:\ means "root of C: drive" (absolute). Node's path.normalize faithfully returns C:. because that's technically the correct normalized form of "current directory on C:".

   The fix looks correct. One minor suggestion — also handle lowercase drive letters and the edge case where someone passes C: with a trailing backslash that gets stripped elsewhere:

   function normalizePath(p: string): string {
     // Windows: bare drive letters need trailing separator before normalize()
     if (process.platform === 'win32') {
       // Match 'C:' or 'c:' (no path component after)
       if (/^[a-zA-Z]:$/.test(p)) {
         p = p + path.sep;
       }
     }
     return path.normalize(p);
   }

   Test cases to add:

   // Windows bare drive letters
   expect(normalizePath('C:')).toBe('C:\\');
   expect(normalizePath('d:')).toBe('d:\\');  // lowercase
   
   // These should still work
   expect(normalizePath('C:\\')).toBe('C:\\');
   expect(normalizePath('C:/')).toBe('C:\\');
   expect(normalizePath('C:\\Users')).toBe('C:\\Users');

   Happy to review a PR if this moves forward.
2. Chelebii

   added a commit that references this issue on Mar 1, 2026

   fix(filesystem): ensure bare Windows drive letters normalize to root

   ...

   This issue will close once commit 93e036c is merged into the 'main' branch.

   93e036c
3. olaservo

   closed this as completedin #3434on Mar 16, 2026
4. olaservo

   added a commit that references this issue on Mar 16, 2026

   fix(filesystem): ensure bare Windows drive letters normalize to root (#…

   ...

   This issue will close once commit b60eca1 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   b60eca1