There is not good way to catch "File not found" errors on static assets about serve-static

[raphaelsoul]

Is it possible to disable index fallback to avoid this exception?

ServeStaticModule.forRoot({
      rootPath: path.join(__dirname, '../../../public'),
      serveStaticOptions: {
        index: false,
      },
    }),

[2021-03-25T10:35:11.080] [INFO] NestApplication - Nest application successfully started
[2021-03-25T10:35:13.787] [ERROR] ExceptionsHandler - ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/raphaelsoul/projects/zuma/nodejs/mock-server/public/index.html' Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/raphaelsoul/projects/zuma/nodejs/mock-server/public/index.html'
[2021-03-25T10:35:13.788] [ERROR] ExceptionsHandler - ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/raphaelsoul/projects/zuma/nodejs/mock-server/public/index.html' Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/raphaelsoul/projects/zuma/nodejs/mock-server/public/index.html'

[raphaelsoul]

serve-static/lib/loaders/express.loader.ts

Lines 44 to 59 in d0f4a89

	if (options.serveRoot) {
	app.use(
	options.serveRoot,
	express.static(clientPath, options.serveStaticOptions)
	);
	const renderPath =
	typeof options.serveRoot === 'string'
	? options.serveRoot + validatePath(options.renderPath as string)
	: options.serveRoot;
	app.get(renderPath, renderFn);
	} else {
	app.use(express.static(clientPath, options.serveStaticOptions));
	app.get(options.renderPath, renderFn);
	}
	});

res.sendFile in renderFn causes no such file error.

I think it is the best practice. we dont need a global exeception filter

ServeStaticModule.forRoot({
      rootPath: resolve(__dirname, '../public'),
      serveRoot: '/',
}),

For SPAs it is never a problem cause you will always have an index.html(or using index specify a filename)

For serving static file in traditional frontend project, just give a non-empty serveRoot.

Therefore, it seems there is no need for a PR to fix this, we just need update nestjs docs to declare usage for serving SPAs and non-SPAs
@kamilmysliwiec

#207 #523

UPDATE:

in some occasions, the solution above(give non empty serveRoot) still not works. For Example, you want to serve skins/material-design/assets under /themes/material-design.😆

ServeStaticModule.forRoot({
      rootPath: resolve(__dirname, '../skins/material-design/assets'),
      serveRoot: '/themes/material-design',
})

code below does not throw exceptions to built-in ExceptionsHandler class

ServeStaticModule.forRoot({
      rootPath: resolve(__dirname, '../skins/material-design/assets'),
      serveRoot: '/themes/material-design/', // NOTE: it end with slash `/`
})

you can check the reason here(for express)

every request url start serveRoot will be handled by express static middleware in line38 in the screenshot instead of renderFn function

It is very tricky. Seems we need robust code in @nestjs/serve-static library

[cyrilselasi]

@kamilmysliwiec Run into the same issue. Was able to catch the error and handle it appropriately here:

@Catch()
export class ServeStaticExceptionFilter implements ExceptionFilter {

  catch( exception: any, host: ArgumentsHost ): any {

    const ctx = host.switchToHttp();
    const response = ctx.getResponse<Response>();
    const status = exception instanceof HttpException ? exception.getStatus() : HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR;

    if ( exception.code === "ENOENT" ) ) {
      response.sendStatus( HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND );

    }
    response.sendStatus( status );

    }
}

Main gotcha for me was the Catch decorator, since the error thrown is not an HttpException, be sure to leave catch everything.

[danielkbx]

Just ran into the same issue. Even if an exception filter would be working, I think, a 404 would be the correct HTTP response code.

[micaelmbagira]

@kamilmysliwiec @tristan957 here is a repo that reproduces the issue https://github.com/micaelmbagira/nestjs-service-static-139.

[kamilmysliwiec]

It currently seems either impossible or not easily discoverable on how a developer can catch the serve-static 500 error and change it to a 404 for when a file is not found.

Have you tried creating a global exception filter?

[tristan957]

Yes. Sorry if that was not clear from the original issue. My exception filter aimed at catching these 500 errors in order to convert them to 404s.

The global exception filter does not get hit. I know this because my log statements did not come across the console. I can confirm that an instance of the exception filter was created, just not used. To create the global exception filter, I added a provider to my module using the documentation specified at docs.nestjs.com.

[kamilmysliwiec]

Please, provide a minimal repository which reproduces your issue.

[tristan957]

I'll see about getting a reproducible repo tonight.

[tristan957]

@cyrilselasi have you found a good way to use the filter only on the route where you are serving static content?

[cyrilselasi]

Not yet, I have it set as a global filter at the moment. That's working fine for my case

[cedx]

Same issue here. Returning a 404 status code instead of catching the error 500 with a global exception filter is definitely the best option.

[kamilmysliwiec]

PRs are more than welcome (if anyone is interested) :)

[tristan957]

@kamilmysliwiec I think maybe all I will try later today. Does not seem too hard to add at least (if I understand the code correctly) for the Express side of things which I use.

[gdiasbruno]

index fallback

I have same issue

[micalevisk]

Is it possible to disable index fallback to avoid this exception?

@raphaelsoul I don't think so due to the following:

serve-static/lib/loaders/express.loader.ts

Line 27 in 72dc754

const indexFilePath = this.getIndexFilePath(clientPath);

serve-static/lib/loaders/abstract.loader.ts

Lines 13 to 15 in 72dc754

	public getIndexFilePath(clientPath: string): string {
	return join(clientPath, 'index.html');
	}

[basz]

A other use case I have have is serving a static SPA where we need to inject data into the index.html. It needs to be routed through a controller.

Currently i can have a controller that handles /index.html but /some-other-route would serve the index.html unparsed.

[Lokkve0126]

It is possible to use async await in nestjs fastify to solve this problem

app.get(renderPath, async (req, res) => {
                    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
                        const stream = fs.createReadStream(indexFilePath);
                        stream.on("data", (chunk) => {
                            res.type('text/html').send(chunk);
                            resolve();
                        });
                        stream.on("error", () => {
                            reject(new NotFoundException()))
                        });
                    });
                });