Eleventy: Adding .gitignore file results in problem writing templates

[djpowers]

Describe the bug
I added a .gitignore file to my project. With an item listed in that file, building my site fails due to a template error. No templates are written.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Add a .gitignore file to your project root.
2. Add an item in the file.
3. Build your site via npx @11ty/eleventy.
4. See error:

Problem writing Eleventy templates: (more in DEBUG output)
> Invalid data format returned from ./node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/test/stubs/exports-flatdata.11ty.js: typeof string

`JavaScriptTemplateInvalidDataFormatError` was thrown:
    JavaScriptTemplateInvalidDataFormatError: Invalid data format returned from ./node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/test/stubs/exports-flatdata.11ty.js: typeof string
        at JavaScript.getExtraDataFromFile (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/Engines/JavaScript.js:94:15)
        at async Template.getFrontMatterData (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/TemplateContent.js:132:21)
        at async Template.getData (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/Template.js:212:29)
        at async Template.getTemplateMapEntries (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/Template.js:681:16)
        at async TemplateMap.add (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/TemplateMap.js:32:21)
        at async Promise.all (index 1612)
        at async TemplateWriter._createTemplateMap (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/TemplateWriter.js:132:5)
        at async TemplateWriter.write (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/TemplateWriter.js:168:5)
        at async Eleventy.write (/Users/<me>/programs/personal-site/node_modules/@11ty/eleventy/src/Eleventy.js:659:13)

Expected behavior
The site would build with all templates copied over.

Environment:

• OS and Version: macOS 10.15.3
• Eleventy Version: 0.10.0

Additional context
I have an .eleventyignore file in my project root as well (files are not duplicated between them). I tried listing the .gitignore file there, but it did not seem to make a difference.

[pdehaan]

https://www.11ty.dev/docs/ignores/#opt-out-of-using-.gitignore

eleventyConfig.setUseGitIgnore(false);

But the docs link above has some good info on .gitignore vs .eleventyignore vs node_modules, so definitely worth a quick read.

[idmyn]

I also had this issue and was pretty bewildered until I landed here. Would it be possible to add a friendly prompt in the error message?

[stevenpetryk]

This is resolved in 0.11 already. It’s a problem with the npm package itself.

[djpowers]

As @stevenpetryk mentioned above, it looks like this was indeed fixed. I just upgraded to v0.11 and can confirm I'm no longer seeing this problem. Thanks!

Also, not sure if the issue should be documented as part of this milestone.