Node.js path.join removes leading period

Question

I came home with a work project that I planned on fiddling with on my personal computer, I installed everything, using the exact same environment (Node v0.11.12), etc. Start the project, then I'm greeted with messages complaining that the config loader module cannot locate a file (that exists and is at the path exposed by the error).

Looking closer at the error, I realize that the problem is path.join(). Where

path.join('./foo/bar');
// 'foo/bar'

Which is not good. Why does path.join remove the leading period?

** Note **

The above is simply an example. The program make use of the function like

var configFile = require(path.join(modulePath, 'conf', file));

for example, where modulePath is relative to the current working directory (i.e. ./app/module/)

Answer 1

This is correct behavior, and is documented in the Path.join documentation:

Join all arguments together and normalize the resulting path.

It is correct because foo/bar is the normalized (canoncial) form of ./foo/bar, just as it is the normalized form of ./foo/././bar/. or foo/baz/../bar.

(Differences between require('./foo/bar') and require('foo/bar'), and any resulting problems of such, should be specifically addressed in a different question without path.join.)