Error when using the --dry-run flag with many suites

[pheyos]

Prerequisites

• Checked that your issue hasn't already been filed by cross-referencing issues with the faq label
• Checked next-gen ES issues and syntax problems by using the same environment and/or transpiler configuration without Mocha to ensure it isn't just a feature that actually isn't supported in the environment in question or a bug in your code.
• 'Smoke tested' the code to be tested by running it outside the real test suite to get a better sense of whether the problem is in the code under test, your usage of Mocha, or Mocha itself
• Ensured that there is no discrepancy between the locally and globally installed versions of Mocha. You can find them with: node_modules/.bin/mocha --version(Local) and mocha --version(Global). We recommend that you not install Mocha globally.

Description

Using the --dry-run flag with many suites causes an execution error.

Steps to Reproduce

Basically following the getting started steps:

1. Create a new directory, execute the following steps in that directory
2. npm install mocha
3. mkdir test
4. $EDITOR test/test.js
5. Create many suites with one test each in test.js:

   var assert = require('assert');
   describe('Wrapper suite', function () {
     for(let i=0; i < 300; i++) {
       describe(`suite ${i}`, function () {
         it(`test ${i}`, function () {
           assert.equal(1, 1);
         });
       });
     }
   });

6. Dry-run the tests with ./node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha --dry-run

Expected behavior: The test output lists the suits and tests correctly.

Actual behavior:

• At some point, the test execution stops with an error, no summary is logged:
  
• Running with DEBUG=mocha:*, logs mocha:runner uncaught(): got truthy exception RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

Reproduces how often: 100%

Versions

• The output of mocha --version and node_modules/.bin/mocha --version: No global install, node_modules/.bin/mocha --version is 9.2.1
• The output of node --version: v16.13.2
• Your operating system
  • name and version: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS
  • architecture (32 or 64-bit): 64-bit
• Your shell (e.g., bash, zsh, PowerShell, cmd): zsh v5.8
• Your browser and version (if running browser tests): n/a
• Any third-party Mocha-related modules (and their versions): n/a
• Any code transpiler (e.g., TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Babel) being used (and its version): n/a

Additional Information

• The test run finished as expected when running ./node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha without the --dry-run flag.
• Running many tests in one suite instead of many suites with one test each works as expected with the --dry-run flag, e.g. this slightly modified test.js runs fine:

  var assert = require('assert');
  describe('Wrapper suite', function () {
    for(let i=0; i < 300; i++) {
      it(`test ${i}`, function () {
        assert.equal(1, 1);
      });
    }
  });

[juergba]

@pheyos thanks for your detailed analysis and excellent samples.