Path Inconsistency in container.js (Introduced in v3.7.2)

[mjalav]

Problem Description
Starting from CodeceptJS v3.7.2, there is a path inconsistency issue in node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js, specifically in the function that generates folderPath.

When passing paths = "./automation/**/*.js", the code attempts to generate the folderPath by joining it with global.codecept_dir.
The existing logic:
const folderPath = paths.startsWith('.') ? path.join(global.codecept_dir, paths) : '';
causes an issue on Windows, where it generates a mix of backslashes (\) and forward slashes (/), resulting in:
"D:\\Project/automation/**/*.js"
This breaks globSync, preventing it from finding step definition files.
Version History
✅ v3.6.10 and earlier: This issue did not exist, and step definitions were found correctly.
❌ v3.7.0 and later: The mixed path format prevents globSync from resolving files.

Here is the diff that solved my problem:

diff --git a/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js b/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js
index 66c7c16..d986dac 100644
--- a/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js
+++ b/node_modules/codeceptjs/lib/container.js
@@ -469,8 +469,9 @@ function loadGherkinSteps(paths) {
       loadSupportObject(path, `Step Definition from ${path}`)
     }
   } else {
-    const folderPath = paths.startsWith('.') ? path.join(global.codecept_dir, paths) : ''
+    const folderPath = paths.startsWith('.') ? normalizeAndJoin(global.codecept_dir, paths) : ''
     if (folderPath !== '') {
       globSync(folderPath).forEach(file => {
         loadSupportObject(file, `Step Definition from ${file}`)
       })
@@ -562,3 +563,16 @@ function getHelperModuleName(helperName, config) {
   // built-in helpers
   return `./helper/${helperName}`
 }
+
+function normalizeAndJoin(basePath, subPath) {
+  // Normalize the path (handles extra slashes and resolves `..`)
+  let normalizedBase = path.normalize(basePath);
+  let normalizedSub = path.normalize(subPath);
+
+  // Replace backslashes with forward slashes
+  normalizedBase = normalizedBase.replace(/\\/g, '/');
+  normalizedSub = normalizedSub.replace(/\\/g, '/');
+
+  // Join the paths using POSIX-style
+  return path.posix.join(normalizedBase, normalizedSub);
+}
\ No newline at end of file

This allows configurations like the following to work correctly in codecept.conf.js:

gherkin: {
  features: `./appium/e2e/**/*.feature`, 
  steps: `./appium/e2e/**/*.js`, 
}

Currently, this does not work on Windows because globSync cannot resolve the mixed path format. With this change, step definitions will be found properly.