node 22.18 breaks npm package because of `experimental-strip-types` enabled

[tbowmo]

Version

v22.18.0

Platform

Linux / Windows / Azure devops build agents

Subsystem

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

After updating to node22.18 we see issues with builds. Looking through the change notes, I see that it now has enabled an experimental feature, and we now to have to add --no-experimental... to the command line in order to run our code in nodejs.

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

consistently failure in our CI pipelines unless --no-experimental-strip-types is added to node cli

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

minor releases should not add experimental features to an existing lts version

What do you see instead?

Failing builds using node 22.18 (working fine with node 22.17)

Additional information

No response

[targos]

@nodejs/typescript

[JakobJingleheimer]

What errors? What reproduces them?

[rmlearney-digicatapult]

Happening here too:

nvm use 22 -> 22.18

Then we just run our unit tests as usual, or in CI

Doesn't happen with 22.17.1

Exception during run: Error [ERR_INTERNAL_ASSERTION]: Unexpected status of a module that is imported again after being required. Status = 0
This is caused by either a bug in Node.js or incorrect usage of Node.js internals.
Please open an issue with this stack trace at https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues

    at Function.fail (node:internal/assert:17:9)
    at ModuleJobSync.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:430:12)
    at onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:647:42)
    at async formattedImport (/Users/rlearney/git/veritable-cloudagent/node_modules/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js:9:14)
    at async Object.requireModule [as requireOrImport] (/Users/rlearney/git/veritable-cloudagent/node_modules/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js:97:28)
    at async exports.loadFilesAsync (/Users/rlearney/git/veritable-cloudagent/node_modules/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js:123:20)
    at async singleRun (/Users/rlearney/git/veritable-cloudagent/node_modules/mocha/lib/cli/run-helpers.js:164:3)
    at async exports.handler (/Users/rlearney/git/veritable-cloudagent/node_modules/mocha/lib/cli/run.js:379:5) {
  code: 'ERR_INTERNAL_ASSERTION'
}

NB fixed with NODE_OPTIONS="--no-experimental-strip-types" in all our package.jsons

[tbowmo]

What I saw was that suddenly __dirname was not defined. We do not specify type in our package.json files, so the project should fallback to type commons.

This worked up until nodejs version 22.17, after upgrading to version 22.18 it broke our ci tests.

Adding the no-experimental-stripe-types option fixed our issue in 22.18.

I my opinion, this change shouldn't have been added in an 22.x version as a new default setting, as it breaks stuff. It was mentioned in 23.x something though, which is fine.

(I don't have access to specific failing code right now, will investigate further tomorrow if needed)

[simhnna]

We've also run into this issue while executing tests using mocha --require ts-node/register

[himself65]

It looks like mocha, ts-node related issue. Not sure how does they implement the loader

[marco-ippolito]

I'm on PTO, I can look into this next week. Please provide a repro (even something with mocha) I can look into it when I'm back unless someone wants to give it a try

[yagrawal-chwy]

You can look at #59366 , launching with NODE_OPTIONS="--no-experimental-strip-types" flag sends Node back to the old loader path; that’s why it cures both the “unexpected feature enabled” problem and the TypeError: undefined.getStatus crash, but I believe these are 2 separate issues - same cause, different effects.

edit: educated, they're not related

[marco-ippolito]

You can look at #59366 , launching with NODE_OPTIONS="--no-experimental-strip-types" flag sends Node back to the old loader path; that’s why it cures both the “unexpected feature enabled” problem and the TypeError: undefined.getStatus crash, but I believe these are 2 separate issues - same cause, different effects.

That doesnt seem related to type stripping though @joyeecheung ideas?

[tbowmo]

I'll see if I can make a minimal example with the error in tomorrow.

This issue is also in the latest 24.5.0, I was struggling for the last couple of weeks upgrading, the this issue with 22. 18 led me to the the --no-experimental flag, which also solves my other problems (this is one gigantius project, that is 7 years old, that I work on. So not always easy to do upgrades)

[joyeecheung]

That doesnt seem related to type stripping though @joyeecheung ideas?

As explained in #59366 (comment) - it might have something to do with the interaction between esbuild-register and the .js handler changes in #58657 (or that it may not be enough to make it transparent enough for esbuild-register)