-reloaddirs option does not work

[smac89]

Description

When using the -reloaddirs option to specify a folder outside the working directory, the app is not reloaded when any files in those folders change

To Reproduce

1. mkdir -p /tmp/myproject/common
2. cd /tmp/myproject && go work init
3. wails init -n gui -t preact-ts
4. go work use gui
5. cd common && go mod init myproject/common
6. go work use .
7. touch foo.go
8. copy the following to foo.go

   package common
   
   import "fmt"
   
   func doSomething() {
       fmt.Println("Something else")
   }

9. cd /tmp/myproject/gui
10. wails dev -reloaddirs=/tmp/myproject/common
11. In a different process, make changes to /tmp/myproject/common/foo.go

Expected behaviour

Changes made to /tmp/myproject/common/foo.go should have caused the watcher to reload, but instead nothing happens

Screenshots

No response

Attempted Fixes

I've tried specifying the reloaddirs option in many ways, but none of them works. I believe the problem is that the variable which contains dirsThatTriggerAReload, found here:

wails/v2/cmd/wails/internal/dev/dev.go

Lines 339 to 343 in 7fae22b

	// doWatcherLoop is the main watch loop that runs while dev is active
	func doWatcherLoop(buildOptions *build.Options, debugBinaryProcess *process.Process, f *flags.Dev, watcher *fsnotify.Watcher, exitCodeChannel chan int, quitChannel chan os.Signal, devServerURL *url.URL, legacyUseDevServerInsteadofCustomScheme bool) *process.Process {
	// Main Loop
	var extensionsThatTriggerARebuild = sliceToMap(strings.Split(f.Extensions, ","))
	var dirsThatTriggerAReload []string

is not being added to the watcher, therefore none of the changes specified by -reloaddirs option are being detected

System Details

Wails CLI v2.5.1

# System

OS           | ArcoLinux
Version      | Unknown  
ID           | arcolinux
Go Version   | go1.20.5 
Platform     | linux    
Architecture | amd64    

# Wails

Version         | v2.5.1
Package Manager | pacman

# Dependencies

Dependency | Package Name | Status    | Version    
*docker    | docker       | Installed | 1:24.0.5-1 
gcc        | gcc          | Installed | 13.2.1-3   
libgtk-3   | gtk3         | Installed | 1:3.24.38-1
libwebkit  | webkit2gtk   | Installed | 2.40.5-1   
npm        | npm          | Installed | 9.8.1-1    
pkg-config | pkgconf      | Installed | 1.8.1-1    
* - Optional Dependency

# Diagnosis

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Additional context

No response

[haukened]

@smac89 i also just noticed there is a strange interplay between .gitignore and those directories.
Can you look at #2867 and confirm for me that isn't your issue as well?

If not, I'm happy to take a look at this!

[smac89]

@haukened I don't think so. The directories I'm having problems with are those that exist outside the project directory (but within the go workspace).

As I observed in my attempts to fix the issue, I believe the problem is that extra directories specified with the -reloaddirs option are not being added to the watch list. I haven't had time to fully test this, but that's my theory for now.

[haukened]

Ok, looking at this i can confirm that its a bug. It looks like the *fsnotify.Watcher is never informed of these directories. These exists logic to cause a reload:

for _, reloadDir := range dirsThatTriggerAReload {
    if strings.HasPrefix(itemName, reloadDir) {
        reload = true
        break
    }
}

but without notifying the watcher that this directory exists, the required watcher.Event is never generated.

Currently, they are not even passed to initialize watcher:
func initialiseWatcher(cwd string) (*fsnotify.Watcher, error) {}.

[haukened]

Fixed by #2871

[smac89]

That's awesome! Thanks for your time investigating this.