Error in passthrough copy and writing Eleventy templates when _site exists

[prtksxna]

This is my first time using 11ty and I've been enjoying it so far, thank you so much for making such an awesome static site generator!

I'm facing an issue when running eleventy --serve when the _site directory already exists. It leads to errors in passthrough copy and Eleventy templates. If I delete _site and run again everything becomes fine. Weirdly, when I run in debug whether or not the directory exists everything runs fine.

Here is the error:

prtksxna % npm start

> @ start /Users/prtksxna/Code/prtksxna
> npx @11ty/eleventy --serve

[11ty] Writing _site/index.html from ./index.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/crush-by-floating-points/index.html from ./notes/bookmark/album/crush-by-floating-points.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/test/index.html from ./notes/writing/test.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/andhra-egg-curry/index.html from ./notes/recipe/andhra-egg-curry.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/bio/index.html from ./pages/bio.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/everything-fades-to-blue-by-sleepy-fish/index.html from ./notes/bookmark/album/everything-fades-to-blue-by-sleepy-fish.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/does-this-website-need-pagination/index.html from ./notes/notebook/website-need-pagination.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/using-gitattributes-to-make-releasing-wordpress-themes-easier/index.html from ./notes/howto/gitattributes releasing wordpress themes easier.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/setup-gamemaker-on-macos/index.html from ./notes/howto/setup-gamemaker-on-macos.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/gamemaker-code-conventions/index.html from ./notes/howto/gamemaker-code-conventions.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/using-variables-and-includes-in-11ty/index.html from ./notes/howto/using-variables-and-includes-in-11ty.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/stacks/everything/index.html from ./stacks/everything.html (njk)
[11ty] Error with passthrough copy: (more in DEBUG output)
[11ty] 1. Having trouble copying './**/*.png' (via TemplatePassthroughManagerCopyError)
[11ty] 2. Error copying passthrough files: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png' (via TemplatePassthroughError)
[11ty] 3. ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png' (via Error)
[11ty]
[11ty] Original error stack trace: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png'
[11ty] Problem writing Eleventy templates: (more in DEBUG output)
[11ty] 1. Having trouble copying (via EleventyPassthroughCopyError)
[11ty] 2. Having trouble copying './**/*.png' (via TemplatePassthroughManagerCopyError)
[11ty] 3. Error copying passthrough files: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png' (via TemplatePassthroughError)
[11ty] 4. ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png' (via Error)
[11ty]
[11ty] Original error stack trace: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '_site/assets/application_xp.png'
[11ty] Copied 3 files / Wrote 12 files in 0.51 seconds (42.5ms each, v1.0.1)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! @ start: `npx @11ty/eleventy --serve`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the @ start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/prtksxna/.npm/_logs/2022-05-25T14_11_35_946Z-debug.log

Here it is after deleting _sites:

prtksxna % rm -rf _site
prtksxna % npm start

> @ start /Users/prtksxna/Code/prtksxna
> npx @11ty/eleventy --serve

[11ty] Writing _site/index.html from ./index.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/gamemaker-code-conventions/index.html from ./notes/howto/gamemaker-code-conventions.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/andhra-egg-curry/index.html from ./notes/recipe/andhra-egg-curry.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/crush-by-floating-points/index.html from ./notes/bookmark/album/crush-by-floating-points.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/bio/index.html from ./pages/bio.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/setup-gamemaker-on-macos/index.html from ./notes/howto/setup-gamemaker-on-macos.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/using-gitattributes-to-make-releasing-wordpress-themes-easier/index.html from ./notes/howto/gitattributes releasing wordpress themes easier.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/does-this-website-need-pagination/index.html from ./notes/notebook/website-need-pagination.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/using-variables-and-includes-in-11ty/index.html from ./notes/howto/using-variables-and-includes-in-11ty.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/test/index.html from ./notes/writing/test.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/everything-fades-to-blue-by-sleepy-fish/index.html from ./notes/bookmark/album/everything-fades-to-blue-by-sleepy-fish.md (njk)
[11ty] Writing _site/stacks/everything/index.html from ./stacks/everything.html (njk)
[11ty] Copied 96 files / Wrote 12 files in 0.59 seconds (49.2ms each, v1.0.1)
[11ty] Watching…
[Browsersync] Access URLs:
 ---------------------------------
    Local: http://localhost:8080
 External: http://192.168.0.7:8080
 ---------------------------------
[Browsersync] Serving files from: _site

And this is my .eleventy.js:

module.exports = function(config) {
  config.addPassthroughCopy("css");
  config.addPassthroughCopy({"**/*.png" : "assets/"});
  config.addPassthroughCopy({"**/*.jpg" : "assets/"});

  config.addFilter("asPostDate", (dateObj) => {
    var date =  new Date(dateObj);
    var dateString = date.getFullYear() + "-";
    dateString += (date.getMonth() + 1).toString().padStart(2,"0") + "-";
    dateString += date.getDate().toString().padStart(2,"0");
    return dateString;
  });

  return {
    markdownTemplateEngine: "njk",
    dataTemplateEngine: "njk",
    htmlTemplateEngine: "njk",
    dir: {
      input: ".",
      includes: "_includes",
      data: "_data",
      output: "_site"
    }
  };
}

I've also noticed that the assets directory inside of _site has some random pngs coming from node_modules even though its ignored in both .gitignore and .eleventyignore.

[nycki93]

This happened to me and I figured it out! The problem is that the glob "**/*.png" is picking up files inside the _site folder. I moved my source files to /src and changed the glob to "src/**/*.png" and now it works for me.

[wlwtvr]

hi can you elaborate more on this ?

[nycki93]

hi can you elaborate more on this ?

if you use config.addPassthroughCopy({"**/*.png" : "assets/"});, then a file which is already in _site, such as _site/assets/hello.png, will get picked up (because it matches **/*.png) and copied into the output folder (which is _site/assets/), causing an improper loop, which seems to cause errors somewhere.

to fix it, don't use a pattern that starts with **. move your source files into a src folder and match against src/**/*.png instead.

[dwkns]

@nycki93 is almost certainly right.

config.addPassthroughCopy({"**/*.png" : "assets/"}); is attempting to copy all png's in your project folder (including any png's in _site) into _site. This attempting to copy files onto themselves is likely causing the ENOENT: no such file or directory error.

When you delete _site Eleventy doesn't register any files within _site for pass through copying before it runs, so it works as expected.

Using a source folder for yout templates and assets is a smart move and avoids these problems.

[nycki93]

feature request: if there's ever an Eleventy 4.0, it should default to looking for files in src rather than defaulting to the current working directory. all the other default paths like _site and _include are fine, but I always have to change the default source location, and if I always have to change the default then maybe the default is wrong.

[dwkns]

I tend to agree with you. I always have a src folder and for anything but the simplest it becomes difficult very quickly if you don't have one. I suspect it is like it is for legacy reasons.

FYI if you want to make a Feature Request, do it in the Issues. It will get my support.

[nycki93]

I tend to agree with you. I always have a src folder and for anything but the simplest it becomes difficult very quickly if you don't have one. I suspect it is like it is for legacy reasons.

FYI if you want to make a Feature Request, do it in the Issues. It will get my support.

done! #3955