[robobun]

Problem

• Bun Shell ls on a path whose parent is a regular file prints the path and exits 0: ls /etc/hostname/x writes /etc/hostname/x to stdout. coreutils prints cannot access '/etc/hostname/x': Not a directory and fails.
• Cause: ShellLsTask::run_from_thread_pool (src/runtime/shell/builtin/ls.rs:459) opens each operand with O_DIRECTORY and takes ENOTDIR to mean "the operand is a file". The kernel also reports ENOTDIR when a parent component is a file.

Fix

• The ENOTDIR arm now stats the operand with shell_statat. If the stat succeeds, the operand is a file and is printed as before. If it fails, ls reports ls: file/x: Not a directory and exits 1, the same way its ENOENT path does.
• shell_statat is the helper [[ -e ]] uses. It applies the same Windows path rewrite as the shell_openat call above it.
• The ENOENT arm had the same body as the _ arm and is folded into it.
• Verified: four new cases in test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts (ls file/x, -l, -d, ls file file/x). All four fail on the release build. The rest of ls.test.ts and bunshell.test.ts pass.

Background

• The ls builtin runs one ShellLsTask per operand on the thread pool. A task either lists a directory or appends a file operand to its output. A task that sets err makes the builtin print ls: <path>: <strerror> and exit 1.
• openat(..., O_DIRECTORY) fails with ENOTDIR when the last component is not a directory and also when an earlier one is not. A second syscall tells them apart.

Notes

• Release build (1.4 canary) before the change:

  ls /etc/hostname/x   exit 0  stdout "/etc/hostname/x\n"  stderr ""
  ls -l file/x         exit 0  stdout "?????????? ? ? ? ?            ? file/x\n"
  

• Debug build after the change:

  ls /etc/hostname/x   exit 1  stderr "ls: /etc/hostname/x: Not a directory\n"
  ls /etc/hostname     exit 0  stdout "/etc/hostname\n"
  ls f                 exit 0  stdout "f\n"
  ls link-to-file      exit 0  stdout "link-to-file\n"
  ls link-to-file/x    exit 1  stderr "ls: link-to-file/x: Not a directory\n"
  ls -l f/x            exit 1  stderr "ls: f/x: Not a directory\n"
  ls nope/x            exit 1  stderr "ls: nope/x: No such file or directory\n"
  ls f lnk f/x         exit 1  stdout "f\nlnk\n"  stderr "ls: f/x: Not a directory\n"
  

• shell_statat follows symlinks. A symlink whose target path runs through a file (ln -s f/x bad) is therefore reported as Not a directory. This matches the existing broken symlink file test in ls.test.ts, which expects a dangling link to be an error rather than printed as coreutils does.

• The stat error, not the open error, is what gets reported. Both are ENOTDIR for file/x. If the file disappears between the two calls, the stat error (ENOENT) describes the current state.

• On Windows the file\x open can already fail with ENOENT (STATUS_OBJECT_PATH_NOT_FOUND), which was an error before this change too. The new tests accept either message there and pin Not a directory on POSIX.

• The exit code stays 1. The builtin uses 1 for every error, coreutils uses 2 for this one. Not changed here.

• ls.test.ts has two chmod-based permission denied tests that fail in any environment that runs as root, with or without this change. test: add a harness isRoot and skip the chmod-based ls and Bun.file cases as root #39232 covers them.

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no test proof · iteration 0 · Platform-specific test(s) that do not run on this machine. Deferring to CI, which covers all platforms: test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts

[robobun]

Status: ready for review (head 2c66f66).

Reproduced on the release build: await $\ls /etc/hostname/x`.nothrow()exits 0 and prints/etc/hostname/x. With this branch it exits 1 and prints ls: /etc/hostname/x: Not a directory. The four new cases in test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts` fail on the release build and pass with the debug build. Two pre-existing chmod-based cases in that file fail when the test runs as root, with or without this change (#39232).

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

The ls builtin now validates ENOTDIR operands with shell_statat. Tests cover regular-file parent paths, option variants, mixed operands, platform-specific diagnostics, and valid output.

Changes

ls ENOTDIR validation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Validate ENOTDIR operands src/runtime/shell/builtin/ls.rs, src/runtime/shell/interpreter.rs	ls calls shell_statat when an ENOTDIR error occurs. Existing operands are listed as files. Missing paths report a path-qualified stat error. The usage documentation includes ls.
Test invalid parent operands test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts	Tests cover -l, -d, mixed valid and invalid operands, exit code 1, platform-specific diagnostics, and valid operand output preservation.

Possibly related PRs

• oven-sh/bun#39238: Both changes preserve user-provided operand paths in shell builtin stat-error handling.

Suggested reviewers: jarred-sumner, dylan-conway

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 2c66f

The change is localized and the new behavior is covered by tests; only a non-blocking test assertion-order cleanup remains, so no actionable merge-blocking risk remains.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main ls behavior fix for operands whose parent is a file.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description explains the problem, fix, implementation details, tests, and verification results, despite using headings different from the template.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts`:
- Line 298: Reorder the assertions in the new ls command tests so .exitCode(1)
is chained last: after .stderr(notADirectory) in the first three tests, and
after both .stdout("file\n") and .stderr(notADirectory) in the mixed test.
Preserve all existing assertions and behavior.

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ℹ️ Review info

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📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• src/runtime/shell/builtin/ls.rs
• src/runtime/shell/interpreter.rs
• test/js/bun/shell/commands/ls.test.ts

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[claude]

LGTM — targeted fix that disambiguates the two ENOTDIR cases from openat(..., O_DIRECTORY) by stat'ing the operand.

What was reviewed:

• Confirmed shell_statat follows symlinks on POSIX (fstatat) and applies the Windows path rewrite, so ls symlink-to-file still prints and the existing broken-symlink tests are unaffected.
• Checked the -d path: file operands still print via add_entry on stat success; file/x now errors.
• Tests cover the variant matrix (plain, -l, -d, mixed operands) and .file() auto-creates the tempdir.

Extended reasoning...

Overview

This PR fixes a bug in Bun Shell's ls builtin where ls file/x (a path whose parent component is a regular file) would print the path and exit 0 instead of failing. The root cause is that openat(..., O_DIRECTORY) returns ENOTDIR both when the last component is a non-directory and when an intermediate component is — the code assumed only the former. The fix adds a shell_statat call in the ENOTDIR arm to distinguish: stat success → operand is a file, print it; stat failure → report the stat error. The redundant ENOENT arm is folded into the catch-all. Changes: ~15 lines in ls.rs, a one-line comment update in interpreter.rs, and four new test cases in ls.test.ts.

Security risks

None. This is error-path handling in a shell builtin operating on paths the user already passed. No new attack surface, no untrusted-input parsing changes, no privilege boundaries crossed.

Level of scrutiny

Low-to-medium. The change is small and mechanical: one match arm now branches on a second syscall's result. It reuses the existing shell_statat helper (already used by [[ -e ]]), which applies the same Windows path rewrite as the shell_openat call above it — no new platform-specific code. The fix is at the right layer (the task that misinterpreted the errno), and the PR description demonstrates a clear understanding of the mechanism with verified before/after output on both release and debug builds.

Other factors

• Test coverage is solid per the repo's review standards: covers the variant matrix (plain, -l, -d, mixed with a valid file operand), pins the exact stderr on POSIX, and accepts either ENOTDIR/ENOENT phrasing on Windows where the open can already fail differently. Verified .file() in TestBuilder auto-creates a tempdir.
• Checked that existing behavior is preserved: ls regular-file (open ENOTDIR → stat succeeds → print), ls symlink-to-file (stat follows the link → succeeds → print), ls dangling-symlink (open fails ENOENT, not ENOTDIR → unchanged error path). The -d flag path is unaffected for directories (open succeeds) and correctly errors for file/x.
• No prior review comments on the PR to address. The two pre-existing chmod test failures under root are noted and tracked separately (#39232), unrelated to this change.

[robobun]

#40091 (branch farm/a8fcecb0/shell-ls-operand) covers this case and two neighbours in the same code path: a dangling or looping symlink operand is listed by name (as GNU and BSD ls do), and an operand that starts with a dot is no longer dropped by the -a/-A filter. It replaces the ENOTDIR-only stat with an lstat on any open failure. If the narrower change here is preferred, #40091 can be rebased on top of it.

[robobun]

Closing in favor of #40091, which fixes the same ls operand bug with a broader rule. It reports ls f/x as Not a directory like this PR does. It also lists a dangling symlink operand by name instead of failing with ENOENT, and it stops the -a/-A dotfile filter from hiding an operand such as ls .hidden.

The four test cases from this PR pass on #40091's branch. The two it did not already have (ls -d f/x and a file operand next to f/x) are folded into its test file in 6517b29.