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express 5 router wildcard does not work as documented #1408
Description
Hi,
The following does not work as written in the documentation:
https://expressjs.com/en/5x/api.html
app.all('*', requireAuthentication, loadUser)
This is because you are at a newer version of path-to-regexp
https://github.com/pillarjs/path-to-regexp#compatibility-with-express--4x
so please update the documentation because this works
app.all('(.*)', requireAuthentication, loadUser)
I think that also the migration doc should reflect this change.
Thanks
Reacted by Adi Achituve and Daniel
Reacted by Ömer Esas
Activity
david-gang commentedon Mar 16, 2023
@dougwilson I could open a PR with the documentation changes. English is not my mother tongue so i would prefer that a native english speaker will review the PR. What do you think ?
IamLizu commentedon Aug 14, 2024
Hey @david-gang 👋
Thank you for your contribution 🎉
You can start this, if you are still here, please respond and I think someone will assign this to you.
david-gang commentedon Aug 16, 2024
Hi,
I am not longer using express actively.
Sorry,
IamLizu commentedon Aug 16, 2024
Hey @david-gang 👋
Its fine.
In that case, I willing to fix it.
cc: @UlisesGascon
IamLizu commentedon Aug 22, 2024
Quick question, I have noticed that express 5.0 is not using
path-to-regex, not listed as dependency.. Why is that?Edit: It appears that
express5 is usingrouterwhich is usingpath-to-regexp"3.2.0".IamLizu commentedon Sep 1, 2024
We already have PR for this which is ready to be landed,
crandmck commentedon Sep 2, 2024
Fixed by #1369
osakdv commentedon Jul 19, 2025
Still encountered issues using either
'*'or'(.*)'- in Express 5, these throw a missing parameter name error and fail to parse properly.The route pattern i use that works fine is this:
/^\/(?!api).*/app.all(/^\/(?!api).*/, requireAuthentication, loadUser)NOTE: This excludes all routes starting with /api - api related routes
bjohansebas commentedon Jul 19, 2025
@osakdv https://expressjs.com/en/guide/migrating-5.html#path-syntax
Josehower commentedon Sep 15, 2025
this also my be interesting to see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/furqanahmad03_expressjs-webdevelopment-deployment-activity-7326959821352525824-4hk_