A global scan drops the trailing empty match: "a".match(/a*/g) is ["a"], node gives ["a",""]

"a".match(/a*/g)              // node ["a",""]        perry ["a"]
"ab".match(/b*/g)             // node ["","b",""]     perry ["","b"]
"a".replace(/a*/g, "<>")      // node "<><>"          perry "<>"

Same for matchAll. No flags beyond g are involved.

When the previous match ends at the end of the haystack, the scan stops instead of taking the final zero-width match that ECMAScript's RegExpExec loop produces there.

This is what makes test_parity_regex_replace_fn_lookahead diverge from node today, and it is why the /gms rows for terminator-final subjects had to be excluded from #9427's #9408 fixture — with a comment in the file pointing here.

Found while fixing #9408/#9409; independent of both.

fix(runtime): a global scan keeps the empty match at a match's end (P…

fix(runtime): exec/test keep the whole subject, and a global scan kee…

Fixed by PR #9437: the shared global_scan.rs loop implements ECMAScript's keep-empty-match-then-advance rule for the two Rust-iterator lanes (regress already had it and is the pinned control). Wider than filed: the rule fires at EVERY match-end position, not just the trailing one. test_gap_9430_global_scan_trailing_empty.ts (64 diff lines before). Verified on main 0a1c137d90 with a fresh build: fixture byte-identical to node --experimental-strip-types (stdout, stderr, and exit code).
The third independent root cause found nearby — split on the fancy-regex lane never running @@split, widened by #9427 — is #9438.

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A global scan drops the trailing empty match: "a".match(/a*/g) is ["a"], node gives ["a",""] #9430

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A global scan drops the trailing empty match: "a".match(/a*/g) is ["a"], node gives ["a",""] #9430

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proggeramlug commented on Sep 2, 2026

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