[Windows] mprocs cant open paths.

[JABirchall]

Mprocs fails to run programs in the directory mprocs is run from, and can not change directory to the cwd.
Only programs which are in the system PATH are able to execute, eg winget in this case.

example config:

procs:
  squircy:
    cmd: ["squircy2", "-no-interactive", "-root-path=./config"]
  stalwart:
    cwd: "J:/stalwart/"
    cmd: ["stalwart-cli"]
  winget:
    cmd: ["winget", "update"]

Log:

ERROR [portable_pty::win::psuedocon] CreateProcessW `"squircy2 -no-interactive -root-path=./config\0"` in cwd `Some("C:\\Users\\owner\\Documents\\projects\\squircy2\0")` failed: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)
ERROR [portable_pty::win::psuedocon] CreateProcessW `"stalwart-cli\0"` in cwd `Some("J:/stalwart/\0")` failed: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

Seems paths are being appended with \0

[JABirchall]

Update.

It would seem add_path works, but this requires putting the full path of config locations in the command arguments, which isn't ideal.
eg

procs:
  squircy:
    add_path: "C:/Users/owner/Documents/projects/squircy2"
    cmd: ["squircy2", "-no-interactive", "-root-path=.//Documents/projects/squircy2/config"]

[pvolok]

I tried to add add_path: . and it seems to work. Another option is to use "./squircy2".

I think it's better not to run processes from current directory by default. I thought it was already this way on unix, but I just checked it on macos and it runs binaries from current directory. I will probably change it to not resolve binaries from cwd by default (we can show a warning if executable was not found in PATH by exists in cwd).

[JABirchall]

Yes, but the core bug is that you cant change the cwd in mprocs on windows. Looks like mprocs is breaking the paths with \0

What I should be able to do is, because I also want to add Kafka start and stop commands.

procs:
  squircy:
    cwd: "~/Documents/projects/squircy2"
    cmd: ["squircy2", "-no-interactive", "-root-path=./config"]
  stalwart:
    cwd: "J:/stalwart/"
    cmd: ["stalwart-cli"]
  kafka_start:
    cwd: "M:/Kafka"
    cmd: ["./bin/windows/kafka-server-start.bat", "./config/server.properties"]
    autostart: false
  kafka_stop:
    cwd: "M:/Kafka"
    cmd: ["./bin/windows/kafka-server-stop.bat"]
    autostart: false

But because cwd value is being malformed, none of these procs will run, I need to duplicate paths in both add_path and program arguments if they take them, which they often do for configs locations.

[pvolok]

Interesting. I tested the following config on Windows 11.

procs:
  pwd:
    shell: 'pwd'
    cwd: "C:/users/"

and it gives this output:

/c/Users

Is there anything in your environment that might be different from a default Windows 11 setup?

[JABirchall]

Interesting. I tested the following config on Windows 11.

procs:
pwd:
shell: 'pwd'
cwd: "C:/users/"
and it gives this output:

/c/Users

Is there anything in your environment that might be different from a default Windows 11 setup?

That works for me as well, but pwd is a built in command. the issue is when you try to run a program that is in a specific cwd.

eg: download rammap https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap
Stick it on desktop
Add to config

  ram:
    cmd: ["rammap64.exe", "-h"]
    cwd: "C:/users/owner/desktop"

run and observe

ERROR [portable_pty::win::psuedocon] CreateProcessW `"rammap64.exe -h\0"` in cwd `Some("C:/users/owner/desktop\0")` failed: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

[pvolok]

Thank you. Looks like the cwd is set properly for the process. But it's not taken into account while resolving the executable when cmd is used. When shell is used, the executable is resolved correctly because the shell (cmd.exe) is running within cwd.

The issue is clear now.