express 5 router wildcard does not work as documented

[david-gang]

Hi,

The following does not work as written in the documentation:
https://expressjs.com/en/5x/api.html

app.all('*', requireAuthentication, loadUser)

This is because you are at a newer version of path-to-regexp

https://github.com/pillarjs/path-to-regexp#compatibility-with-express--4x

so please update the documentation because this works

app.all('(.*)', requireAuthentication, loadUser)

I think that also the migration doc should reflect this change.

Thanks

[david-gang]

@dougwilson I could open a PR with the documentation changes. English is not my mother tongue so i would prefer that a native english speaker will review the PR. What do you think ?

[IamLizu]

Hey @david-gang 👋

Thank you for your contribution 🎉

You can start this, if you are still here, please respond and I think someone will assign this to you.

[david-gang]

Hi,

I am not longer using express actively.

Sorry,

[IamLizu]

Hey @david-gang 👋

Its fine.

In that case, I willing to fix it.

cc: @UlisesGascon

[IamLizu]

Quick question, I have noticed that express 5.0 is not using path-to-regex, not listed as dependency.. Why is that?

Edit: It appears that express 5 is using router which is using path-to-regexp "3.2.0".

[IamLizu]

We already have PR for this which is ready to be landed,

• Replace fast_star paths with path patterns #1369

[crandmck]

Fixed by #1369

[osakdv]

Still encountered issues using either '*' or '(.*)' - in Express 5, these throw a missing parameter name error and fail to parse properly.

The route pattern i use that works fine is this:
/^\/(?!api).*/

app.all(/^\/(?!api).*/, requireAuthentication, loadUser)

NOTE: This excludes all routes starting with /api - api related routes

[bjohansebas]

@osakdv https://expressjs.com/en/guide/migrating-5.html#path-syntax