fix: normalize missing script paths in watch mode on Windows

Author: webdiscus

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 4.23.3 (2026-06-01)
+
+- fix: normalize restored missing script paths in watch mode to prevent false `Can't resolve ...` errors on Windows.
+
 ## 4.23.2 (2026-06-01)
 
 - fix: restore Webpack filesystem cache builds when a cached HTML template references a script and `js.filename` is configured as a function, #190

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "html-bundler-webpack-plugin",
-  "version": "4.23.2",
+  "version": "4.23.3",
   "description": "Generates complete single-page or multi-page website from source assets. Built-in support for Markdown, Eta, EJS, Handlebars, Nunjucks, Pug. Alternative to html-webpack-plugin.",
   "keywords": [
     "html",

src/Plugin/Snapshot.js

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 const { readDirRecursiveSync } = require('../Common/FileUtils');
+const { pathToPosix } = require('../Common/Helpers');
 
 /**
  * Snapshot of files.
@@ -138,7 +139,9 @@ class Snapshot {
     let files = this.missingFiles.get(issuer);
     if (!files) return false;
 
-    return !!Array.from(files).find((missingFile) => file.endsWith(missingFile));
+    file = pathToPosix(file);
+
+    return !!Array.from(files).find((missingFile) => file.endsWith(pathToPosix(missingFile)));
   }
 
   static getDiff(a, b) {

test/issue.test.js

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import os from 'os';
 import path from 'path';
 import webpack from 'webpack';
 import HtmlBundlerPlugin from '../src';
+import Snapshot from '../src/Plugin/Snapshot';
 import { compareFiles, compareFilesRuns } from './utils/helpers';
 
 beforeAll(() => {
@@ -92,4 +93,46 @@ describe('issue tests', () => {
       fs.rmSync(context, { recursive: true, force: true });
     }
   });
+
+  test.each([
+    {
+      name: 'missing uses backslashes, restored uses slashes',
+      issuer: 'C:\\path\\to\\index.html',
+      missingFile: 'C:\\path\\to\\script.js',
+      restoredFile: 'C:/path/to/script.js',
+    },
+    {
+      name: 'missing uses slashes, restored uses backslashes',
+      issuer: 'C:\\path\\to\\index.html',
+      missingFile: 'C:/path/to/script.js',
+      restoredFile: 'C:\\path\\to\\script.js',
+    },
+    {
+      name: 'missing uses backslashes, restored uses backslashes',
+      issuer: 'C:\\path\\to\\index.html',
+      missingFile: 'C:\\path\\to\\script.js',
+      restoredFile: 'C:\\path\\to\\script.js',
+    },
+    {
+      name: 'missing uses slashes, restored uses slashes',
+      issuer: 'C:/path/to/index.html',
+      missingFile: 'C:/path/to/script.js',
+      restoredFile: 'C:/path/to/script.js',
+    },
+    {
+      name: 'missing script matches POSIX path',
+      issuer: '/path/to/index.html',
+      missingFile: '/path/to/script.js',
+      restoredFile: '/path/to/script.js',
+    },
+  ])('watch restored missing script matches Windows paths: $name', ({ issuer, missingFile, restoredFile }) => {
+    Snapshot.missingFiles.clear();
+    Snapshot.addMissingFile(issuer, missingFile);
+
+    try {
+      expect(Snapshot.hasMissingFile(issuer, restoredFile)).toBe(true);
+    } finally {
+      Snapshot.missingFiles.clear();
+    }
+  });
 });