buf format does not run on Windows

[jlumsden-mts]

GitHub repository with your minimal reproducible example (do not leave this field blank or fill out this field with "github.com/bufbuild/buf" or we will automatically close your issue, see the instructions above!)

github.com/bufbuild/buf

Commands

buf format

Output

Failure: exec: "diff": executable file not found in %PATH%

Expected Output

Works as usual, still gives the same error even without the -d flag

Anything else?

Running v1.47.2 x86_64 on Windows 11.

It looks like it assumes "diff" is available on Windows which isn't guaranteed as it's a Unix utility. Closest Windows equivalent would be "fc" for file compare.

[doriable]

Hello, this is a duplicate of this issue: #1251.
There are a couple of workarounds provided, diff is available as an alias through the Powershell environment.

[jlumsden-mts]

Thanks @doriable for pointing out the workaround, I did search for this in issues prior to raising it but must have missed that one.

I would suggest though that's it's worth, at a minimum, updating the official documentation to point at that workaround or better yet look at fixing it so the workaround isn't required.

[doriable]

This is an excellent suggestion! I'll pass that along to the documentation folks and we'll put something in :)