Version

22.13.1

Platform

Darwin macbookpro.lan 24.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Thu Jan  2 20:24:16 PST 2025; root:xnu-11215.81.4~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 arm64 arm Darwin

Subsystem

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Full reduced test case: https://github.com/OliverJAsh/node-watch-bug

src/server.js:

setTimeout(() => {}, 100000);

1. Run node --watch --watch-path=./src/ ./src/server.js
2. In another terminal run touch ./src/server.js.

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

Every time.

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

1 restart event/log:

Restarting './src/server.js'

This is what we get when we remove --watch and only specify --watch-path:

$ node --watch-path=./src/ ./src/server.js
Restarting './src/server.js'

Curiously, this is also the behaviour we get if we add --watch-preserve-output:

$ node --watch --watch-preserve-output --watch-path=./src/ ./src/server.js
Restarting './src/server.js'

What do you see instead?

2 restart events/logs:

$ node --watch --watch-path=./src/ ./src/server.js
Restarting './src/server.js'
Restarting './src/server.js'

Additional information

This part of the docs seems relevant:

This will turn off watching of required or imported modules, even when used in combination with --watch.

https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v22.x/api/cli.html#--watch-path

Potentially related: #55189