From 7ee9534a80f54126a695a6d0025d30d87a8a0a88 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: iclectic <tansonestost@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2026 13:12:02 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] repl: reject --watch without script

---
 src/node_options.cc                             | 2 +-
 test/sequential/test-watch-mode-watch-flags.mjs | 9 +++++++++
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/node_options.cc b/src/node_options.cc
index ca12586e479b99..917ba7453d6d80 100644
--- a/src/node_options.cc
+++ b/src/node_options.cc
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ void EnvironmentOptions::CheckOptions(std::vector<std::string>* errors,
     } else if (test_runner_force_exit) {
       errors->push_back("either --watch or --test-force-exit "
                         "can be used, not both");
-    } else if (!test_runner && watch_mode_paths.empty() && argv->size() < 1) {
+    } else if (!test_runner && watch_mode_paths.empty() && argv->size() < 2) {
       errors->push_back("--watch requires specifying a file");
     }
 
diff --git a/test/sequential/test-watch-mode-watch-flags.mjs b/test/sequential/test-watch-mode-watch-flags.mjs
index 385f381ad6a0ed..91a96d5269c51b 100644
--- a/test/sequential/test-watch-mode-watch-flags.mjs
+++ b/test/sequential/test-watch-mode-watch-flags.mjs
@@ -51,6 +51,15 @@ async function runNode({
 tmpdir.refresh();
 
 describe('watch mode - watch flags', { concurrency: !process.env.TEST_PARALLEL, timeout: 60_000 }, () => {
+  it('should require a file to watch', async () => {
+    const { code, signal, stderr, stdout } = await common.spawnPromisified(execPath, ['--watch']);
+
+    assert.strictEqual(code, 9);
+    assert.strictEqual(signal, null);
+    assert.match(stderr, /--watch requires specifying a file/);
+    assert.strictEqual(stdout, '');
+  });
+
   it('when multiple `--watch` flags are provided should run as if only one was', async () => {
     const projectDir = tmpdir.resolve('project-multi-flag');
     mkdirSync(projectDir);