Creating a project with existing directory => impossible?

[sokraflex]

Versions

ng --version: 1.7.0
npm --version: 5.0.3
node --version: v6.9.5
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit

Repro steps

• Create a new project folder: $ mkdir test
• Switch into the folder: $ cd test
• Install angular-cli: $ npm install -g @angular/cli
• Try to create a new angular project with the currenct directory: $ ng new appName --directory ./

The last step is nowhere officially documented, however, multiple GitHub-issues linked to this, including:

• Adding angular-cli to existing project? On using ng init #755
• Provide a way to generate a new project in an existing directory #5431

In lack of a documented possibility to create an angular project in an existing directory, I used the above solution.

Observed behavior

Error: Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"directory":"./","name":"appName","skipGit":false,"style":"css","version":"1.7.0","commit":{"message":"chore: initial commit from @angular/cli\n\n    _                      _                 ____ _     ___\n   / \\   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|\n  / △ \\ | '_ \\ / _\\` | | | | |/ _\\` | '__|   | |   | |    | |\n / ___ \\| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |\n/_/   \\_\\_| |_|\\__, |\\__,_|_|\\__,_|_|       \\____|_____|___|\n               |___/\n","name":"Angular CLI","email":"angular-cli@angular.io"},"path":"app","sourceDir":"src","inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","skipTests":false,"skipInstall":false,"linkCli":false,"minimal":false,"serviceWorker":false}
Errors:
  .directory should match format "path"
Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"directory":"./","name":"appName","skipGit":false,"style":"css","version":"1.7.0","commit":{"message":"chore: initial commit from @angular/cli\n\n    _                      _                 ____ _     ___\n   / \\   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|\n  / △ \\ | '_ \\ / _\\` | | | | |/ _\\` | '__|   | |   | |    | |\n / ___ \\| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |\n/_/   \\_\\_| |_|\\__, |\\__,_|_|\\__,_|_|       \\____|_____|___|\n               |___/\n","name":"Angular CLI","email":"angular-cli@angular.io"},"path":"app","sourceDir":"src","inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","skipTests":false,"skipInstall":false,"linkCli":false,"minimal":false,"serviceWorker":false}
Errors:
  .directory should match format "path"

(Yes, the command results in exactly above output - the error message is repeated twice)

Desired behavior

I would expect that angular generates files for a project in the folder, and of course no error message resulting. The files should be located directly in the "test"-folder and not be placed in a subfolder, e.g. "test/appName".

Mention any other details that might be useful (optional)

Using an absolute path instead of a relatively one (in the ng new command) does not change anything, apart from the path-contents of the error message.

Using the command like $ ng new appName --directory . (without the / in the directory path) results in the same error.

Trying to reference the directory from itself by relative path (used as possible workaround) fails with a new error message:

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ ng new appName --directory "../test"
Error: Path "/../test" is invalid.
Path "/../test" is invalid.

If there is any other information I might help you with, please tell me.

Workaround

The same result can be achieved by changing into the parent directory and commanding angular to create the app in the sub-directory:

$ mkdir test
$ ng new appName --directory "test"

[clydin]

Unfortunately, the error messaging is currently overly verbose and repeats. There is on ongoing work to improve the error messaging. In this case the the validation is also overly strict and the actual cause is the / in the --directory ./ option. Removing it should prevent the validation error.

[sokraflex]

Unfortunately, when calling --directory ., the error message stays the same:

C:\Users\MyUser\test>ng new appName --directory .
Error: Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"directory":".","name":"appName","skipGit":false,"style":"css","version":"1.7.0","commit":{"message":"chore: initial commit from @angular/cli\n\n    _                      _                 ____ _     ___\n   / \\   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|\n  / △ \\ | '_ \\ / _\\` | | | | |/ _\\` | '__|   | |   | |    | |\n / ___ \\| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |\n/_/   \\_\\_| |_|\\__, |\\__,_|_|\\__,_|_|       \\____|_____|___|\n               |___/\n","name":"Angular CLI","email":"angular-cli@angular.io"},"path":"app","sourceDir":"src","inlineStyle":false,"inlineTemplate":false,"routing":false,"prefix":"app","skipTests":false,"skipInstall":false,"linkCli":false,"minimal":false,"serviceWorker":false}
Errors:
  .directory should match format "path"

[sokraflex]

I just gave it another run and I found out that it works if I use a relative path out of a parent directory.

Meaning, when executing the command like this:

$ mkdir test
$ ng new appName --directory "test"

it works fine. However, the original case fails with the described error message:

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ ng new appName --directory ./

And the following new test case fails as well, but with a new error message:

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ ng new appName --directory "../test"
Error: Path "/../test" is invalid.
Path "/../test" is invalid.

It seems like there are some problems with path resolving?

I'll update my original post to include the workaround for people that land here by google or similar.

[clydin]

You're right. Both . and ./ should work but it appears only an absolute path seems to work. Would you mind trying it with an absolute path to confirm?

[sokraflex]

As already stated in my original post, absolute paths do not work. I tried it with both \ and / notation, only referencing a relative path to a subfolder seems to work.

[clydin]

Absolutes paths work on Mac and linux; the windows drive letter appears to be the problem in that scenario. The initial errors are due to validation of the string argument. The last issue described is actually an unrelated, different issue with an origin in the initialization of the schematic engine.

[Krumpet]

I also encountered this problem: trying to create from within the project folder with --directory . failed with the error described above, as did
cd
ng new name --directory ./subdirectory

but this worked (without the dot):
cd
ng new name --directory subdirectory

[colmben]

Just to confirm that absolute paths are NOT working on Ubuntu. Both a root (/) and a home (¬) path don't give the error but actually create a sub-path equivalent to the absolute path underneath the current directory (!). So if you are in /myProject/testProject and you do ng new --dir=/myProject/testProject, it actually creates the project files in /myProject/testProject/myProject/testProject.

[jmussman]

This is a serious issue that was created with the 1.7.0 release.

Some companies have very restricted environments and installing @angular/cli globally is not an option. In other environments programmers work on multiple projects. How @angular/cli creates files could change as versions of @angular change, and installing @angular/cli globally may force the programmer into a version that is not backwards compatible for old projects.

Up to version 1.6.8 you could install @angular/cli locally in the project folder and then create the project in the same folder with "--directory ." Somebody added path checking to 1.7.0, and it refused to allow . or .. in the path name. This functionality needs to be restored ASAP.

[denofevil]

Seems to be caused by incorrect path validation here. Validation checks whether path equals to its normalised version which trims relative things like ..
WebStorm project generation is broken due to this.

[granite]

I just ran into this on Windows 8.1 using latest Webstorm using their 'New Project' which creates with angular-cli.

"C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" C:\Users\granite\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules@angular\cli\bin\ng new Testing123 --dir=.
Schematic input does not validate against the Schema: {"directory":".","name":"Testing123","skipGit":false,"style":"css","version":"1.7.1","commit":
SNIP____

Errors:Errors:

.directory should match format "path" .directory should match format "path"

Done