🛠 Repo: Failures on main for test-node-lts: test-node:unit and test-node:integration

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

Tooling Suggestion Checklist

• I have tried restarting my IDE and the issue persists.
• I have pulled the latest main branch of the repository.
• I have read and agree to Mocha's Code of Conduct and Contributing Guidelines
• I have searched for related issues and issues with the faq label, but none matched my issue.
• I want to provide a PR to resolve this

Overview

Example for test-node:unit, https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/actions/runs/12577202344/job/35054634613:

  1) ParallelBuffered
       event
         on EVENT_RUN_END
           should remove all listeners:
     TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length')
      at arrayClone (node:events:894:15)
      at unwrapListeners (node:events:905:15)
      at _listeners (node:events:803:5)
      at EventEmitter.listeners (node:events:813:10)
      at Context.<anonymous> (test/node-unit/reporters/parallel-buffered.spec.js:105:23)
      at callFn (lib/runnable.js:110:584)
      at Runnable.run (lib/runnable.js:110:57)
      at Runner.runTest (lib/runner.js:182:1028)
      at /home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/runner.js:210:639
      at next (lib/runner.js:159:412)
      at /home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/runner.js:159:789
      at next (lib/runner.js:147:565)
      at Immediate._onImmediate (lib/runner.js:151:1226)
      at process.processImmediate (node:internal/timers:491:21)

Example for test-node:integration`, https://github.com/mochajs/mocha/actions/runs/12577202344/job/35054634364:

  1) esm
       should throw an ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND and not ERR_REQUIRE_ESM if file imports a non-existing module:
     
expected '\n Exception during run: Error [ERR_REQUIRE_CYCLE_MODULE]: Cannot require() ES Module /home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/test/integration/fixtures/esm/type-module/test-that-imports-non-existing-module.fixture.js in a cycle. (from /home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js)\n    at ModuleLoader.importSyncForRequire (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:315:15)\n    at loadESMFromCJS (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1414:24)\n    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1547:5)\n    at Module.replacementCompile (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/node_modules/append-transform/index.js:60:13)\n    at node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1677:16\n    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/node_modules/append-transform/index.js:64:4)\n    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1318:32)\n    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1128:12)\n    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)\n    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:219:24)\n    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1340:12)\n    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:138:16)\n    at exports.requireOrImport (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js:10:8)\n    at async exports.loadFilesAsync (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/nodejs/esm-utils.js:21:688)\n    at async singleRun (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/cli/run-helpers.js:55:26)\n    at async exports.handler (/home/runner/work/mocha/mocha/lib/cli/run.js:19:452) {\n  code: \'ERR_REQUIRE_CYCLE_MODULE\'\n}\n'
to contain 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND'

Additional Info

#5165 -> 8f1c8d8 is the first commit on main that shows these complaints. It had a passing CI build and was up-to-date with the latest main. Also, the complaints are popping up in other PRs too, such as #5275. So this must be something introduced outside of our commits.

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

Major versions: this reproduces locally in Node 22 and 23 but not Node 20 or 21.

Specifically: it reproduces in Node 22.12.0 but not Node 22.11.0. Node v22.12.0 was released on December 3rd and is the current latest LTS.

I took a quick search through the Node issue tracker and found nodejs/node#56263. Same error stack, same introduced version. And a fix commit already landed in nodejs/node@acda05d. Swell.

Pending the next Node LTS version being released with a fix, I'll try keeping us in CI to 22.11.0...