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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"`fs.rmSync` cannot remove read-only files on Windows when Node is built with `libc++`","articleBody":"### Version\n\n_No response_\n\n### Platform\n\n```text\n\n```\n\n### Subsystem\n\n_No response_\n\n### What steps will reproduce the bug?\n\nUse `fs.rmSync` on a read-only file on Windows.\n\n### How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?\n\nNote, this issue appears to only exhibit in Electron, but that is due to our specific build configuration (more at the bottom of this issue).\n\nDownstream issue: https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/52253\n\n### What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?\n\nRead-only files should be able to be removed with `rmSync`. This has worked previously.\n\n### What do you see instead?\n\nAs per downstream issue, the call fails with `EPERM`.\n\n### Additional information\n\nSince https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/53617, the implementation for `fs.rmSync` has been written in C++ (specifically using `std::filesystem::remove`). However, depending on the C++ stdlib being used, this leads to divergent behavior.\n\n1. [The MSVC STL, used by official Node builds, specifically includes code to support the removal of read-only files with `filesystem::remove`.](https://github.com/microsoft/STL/pull/1559/changes)\n2. [`libc++`, currently, does not have such code and uses an API that does not support the removal of read-only files.](https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/2b26ee6e790574e05c3c9a562bc37897daf0f384/libcxx/src/filesystem/posix_compat.h#L238-L246)\n\nElectron uses `libc++` to build Node, so it encounters this divergent behavior. Should Node handle this inconsistency inside `RmSync`, or should `libc++` be aligned with the behavior of the MSVC STL?","author":{"url":"https://github.com/nmggithub","@type":"Person","name":"nmggithub"},"datePublished":"2026-07-08T21:10:31Z","url":"https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/64374"}