Gruntfile.js Warning: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received type object Use --force to continue - gruntjs

Question

I'm having an issue with running a grunt copy task. I've a library specified in package.json under dependencies as below
"#tarekraafat/autocomplete.js": "^7.2.0"
and declared copy tasks in Gruntfile.js as below
var paths = {
webroot: "wwwroot/"
};
// destination css path
paths.cssOutput = paths.webroot + "css";
// where to find bower resources
paths.bower_components = paths.webroot + "lib";
// where to find reset.css
paths.resetCss = paths.bower_components + "/html5-reset/assets/css";
module.exports = function (grunt) {
"use strict";
// Project configuration
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON("package.json"),
clean: [paths.cssOutput, paths.bower_components],
// copy other css files
copy: {
options: {
'-W069': false,
'reporterOutput': "",
'esnext': true
},
dist: {
expand: true, // required when using cwd
cwd: paths.resetCss, // set working folder / root to copy
src: ['reset.css'], // copy all files and subfolders
dest: paths.cssOutput //'./wwwroot/css/' // destination folder
},
autoCompleteJS: {
expand: true,
cwd: "wwwroot/lib/#tarekraafat/autocomplete.js/dist/js",
src: ['autoComplete.min.js'],
dest: ['wwwroot/js']
},
autoCompleteCSS: {
expand: true,
cwd: "wwwroot/lib/#tarekraafat/autocomplete.js/dist/css",
src: ['autoComplete.css'],
dest: ['wwwroot/css']
}
}
});
// Load the plugin
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-clean');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-copy');
grunt.registerTask('downloadPkgs', ['pkg']);
grunt.registerTask('cleanAll', ['clean']);
grunt.registerTask('copyAll', ['copy']);
};
Upon running the task "copy:autoCompleteJS" or "copy:autoCompleteCSS" individually, I'm getting the following warning
Running tasks: copy:autoCompleteCSS
Running "copy:autoCompleteCSS" (copy) task
Verifying property copy.autoCompleteCSS exists in config...OK
Warning: The "path" argument must be of type string. Received type object Use --force to continue.
Aborted due to warnings.
Process terminated with code 3.
Note: If I run the task "copy:dist" it is working fine. I suspect that the path supplied to cwd in the other two has special character "#" in the directory name is causing the issue.
Appreciated your help.
MSRS.

Answer 1

The dest value for both the autoCompleteJS and autoCompleteCSS Targets in your copy Task should be a String and not an Array.
//...
autoCompleteJS: {
expand: true,
cwd: "wwwroot/lib/#tarekraafat/autocomplete.js/dist/js",
src: ['autoComplete.min.js'],
dest: 'wwwroot/js' // <----- Change to this
},
autoCompleteCSS: {
expand: true,
cwd: "wwwroot/lib/#tarekraafat/autocomplete.js/dist/css",
src: ['autoComplete.css'],
dest: 'wwwroot/css' // <----- Change to this
}
//...
Also, although not entirely necessary to avoid the error, consider changing the src value for both Targets to Strings instead of an Array too.