Does/should the REPL support `--watch`?

[vassudanagunta]

Version

v26.3.0

Subsystem

REPL

What steps will reproduce the bug?

node --watch

What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?

$ node --inspect
node: REPL does not support --watch

There is no script to watch.

What do you see instead?

$ node --watch
Welcome to Node.js v26.3.0.
Type ".help" for more information.
> 
(To exit, press Ctrl+C again or Ctrl+D or type .exit)
> 

[vassudanagunta]

See also #64121, #62305 and #61740 (comment)

[avivkeller]

Marking this as a bug since node --watch should not behave as if --watch was not provided, it should instead error that --watch requires an argument (IMO)

cc @nodejs/fs (? I think the filesystem team controls watch?)

[Arpit483]

I'd like to work on this issue if no one else is already working on it. I've reproduced the reported behavior on Node.js v26.3.0 and will investigate why node --watch falls back to the REPL instead of reporting an error. If everything looks good, I'll open a PR.