Update Alacritty Themes to Version 4.1.3 Now!

The Bug

Do you know what the PWD command does in Linux?

Let’s say we’re in the Downloads folder on our computer.

Downloads $ pwd
/home/itox/Downloads

pwd returns the current directory path — simple, right?

Today in alacritty-themes we fixed an important bug that we missed in the previous version 4.1.2.

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The Problem

The bug was in this code:

function rootDirectory() {
  return process.PWD
}

When testing and calling the rootDirectory method, which used process.PWD from Node.js, it seemed to return the path to the project folder:

alacritty-themes
  package.json
  src/
    index.js
    helpers/
      index.js

This meant that when running the method in the index.js file of the helpers folder, it returned the path up to the parent folder alacritty-themes, but not to the actual project directory.

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Why This Failed

As we know, the PWD command returns the current folder where you are, not the folder where the script is located.

So when users of the package started changing their themes, surprise! Error: the themes folder (where colors are hosted) didn’t exist because it was looking for it in the user’s current directory, not in the package’s directory.

# User runs this from their home directory
~ $ alacritty-themes monokai

# process.PWD is /home/user
# But themes are at /home/user/.nvm/versions/node/v16.0.0/lib/node_modules/alacritty-themes/themes
# Error: themes folder not found!

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The Solution

We solved it by placing a settings.js file in the main directory of the repository:

// settings.js
module.exports = {
  PROJECT_DIR: __dirname,
}

__dirname returns the directory where the current script is located, regardless of where the command is executed:

// No matter where the user runs this from:
const { PROJECT_DIR } = require("settings")

function rootDirectory() {
  return PROJECT_DIR
}

// Always returns: /home/user/.nvm/versions/node/v16.0.0/lib/node_modules/alacritty-themes

Before and After

Before (broken):

function rootDirectory() {
  return process.PWD  // Returns user's current directory
}

// When run from ~: returns /home/user
// Themes folder not found!

After (fixed):

const { PROJECT_DIR } = require("settings")

function rootDirectory() {
  return PROJECT_DIR  // Returns package directory
}

// Always returns /path/to/alacritty-themes
// Themes folder found!

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What I Learned

1. process.PWD vs __dirname — This is a crucial distinction in Node.js:
   • process.PWD: The current working directory where the command was executed
   • __dirname: The directory where the current script file is located

2. Always test in different directories — We tested from the project directory, so process.PWD happened to work. We should have tested from a completely different directory

3. Package-specific paths — When building a package or library, never rely on the user’s working directory. Always use paths relative to where your code is installed

4. __dirname is your friend — For package development, __dirname (and __filename) are reliable ways to get paths relative to your code

5. Bugs happen even after releases — We released 4.1.2 thinking everything was fixed, but users found this bug quickly. Fast follow-up releases (like 4.1.3) show you care about quality

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With this, we solved the problem. Update to version 4.1.3 now!

Alacritty-Themes on GitHub