[BUG] NPM 9 changes wildcard matching without a breaking change note

[Dfenniak]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

When publishing a package with a package.json including:

  "files": [
    "/build/*"
  ],

In NPM 8 all subdirectories and their files would be included. In NPM 9 it seems this has changed to not include subdirectories.

Expected Behavior

I think this new behaviour is actually correct, I would expect "/build/**" or "/build/**/*" to be used for including subdirectories - but from reading through breaking changes I couldn't find any references for this change - it might be nice to have some kind of deprecation or changed behaviour mentioned if using a single asterisk notation.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Set up a package to publish from a build folder with subdirectories and include the following in package.json

  "files": [
    "/build/*"
  ],

2. Run 'npm package --dry-run'
3. Note that with NPM 9 subdirectories aren't included and with NPM 8 they are.

Environment

• npm:9.4.2
• Node.js:v16.13.2
• OS Name: n/a
• System Model Name: n/a
• npm config: n/a