run_watch patterns match filesystem events from unrelated watchers after prefix-stripping

[jskrill]

What happened?

When using run_watch and --path DIR/** is combined with any other path, all filesystem events stemming from the root of the secondary path trigger a restart because DIR/** gets stripped to ** which matches any path via doublestar.

In my case, I was trying to watch --path devspace.yaml and --path HELM_CHART_PATH/** because I wanted devspace to reload on helm chart changes and its own config changes.

Taking an example, let's assume HELM_CHART_PATH is /var/tmp/chart and so we have:

--path devspace.yaml
--path /var/tmp/chart/**

In the code at

devspace/pkg/devspace/pipeline/engine/basichandler/commands/run_watch.go

Lines 92 to 106 in af83b7e

	patternsSplitted := strings.Split(filepath.ToSlash(p), "/")
	lastIndex := len(patternsSplitted) - 1
	for i, s := range patternsSplitted {
	if strings.Contains(s, "*") {
	lastIndex = i
	break
	}
	}
	targetPath := strings.Join(patternsSplitted[:lastIndex], "/")
	if targetPath == "" {
	targetPath = "."
	} else {
	patterns[i] = strings.TrimPrefix(patterns[i], targetPath+"/")
	}

1. patternsSplitted becomes ["", "var", "tmp", "chart", "**"]
2. lastIndex becomes 4
3. targetPath be becomes /var/tmp/chart
4. patterns[i] becomes "**"

patterns gets passed to handleCommand at

devspace/pkg/devspace/pipeline/engine/basichandler/commands/run_watch.go

Line 171 in af83b7e

return w.handleCommand(ctx, patterns, excludes, action, globalChannel)

Trivially, since ** matches all paths then any path which reaches

devspace/pkg/devspace/pipeline/engine/basichandler/commands/run_watch.go

Lines 193 to 199 in af83b7e

	hasMatched := false
	for _, p := range patterns {
	hasMatched, _ = doublestar.Match(p, e)
	if hasMatched {
	break
	}
	}

would match and cause a reload.

Taking the second path devspace.yaml, that resolves to a recursive watch on "." due to

devspace/pkg/devspace/pipeline/engine/basichandler/commands/run_watch.go

Line 103 in af83b7e

targetPath = "."

All changed relative paths go through a global channel here

devspace/pkg/devspace/pipeline/engine/basichandler/commands/run_watch.go

Line 163 in af83b7e

globalChannel <- filepath.ToSlash(relPath)

but because of the ** pattern, any path rooted at "." (the entire project directory) would cause a reload, not just devspace.yaml.

What did you expect to happen instead?

run_watch should match the patterns given

How can we reproduce the bug? (as minimally and precisely as possible)

run_watch --path devspace.yaml
          --path /var/tmp/chart/**
          ..

Local Environment:

• DevSpace Version: 6.3.20
• Operating System: linux
• ARCH of the OS: AMD64

Kubernetes Cluster:

• Cloud Provider: k3d
• Kubernetes Version: 1.29.7