Many applications on Windows (e.g. the Chocolatey wrapper) do not work when current_dir is a canonicalized path

[jbiason]

I found a "weird" issue with std::process::Command and canonicalized paths on Windows. Something like (which assumes lsd is installed on the machine):

let p1 = Path::new(".");
let p2 = p1.canonicalize().unwrap();

let e = std::process::Command::new("lsd").current_dir(&p1).spawn().wait_for_output().unwrap();
println!("P1 = {e:?}");

let e = std::process::Command::new("lsd").current_dir(&p2).spawn().wait_for_output().unwrap();
println!("P2 = {e:?}");

... works fine for the first execution, showing the current directory contents; but the second execution fails with

Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.
   at System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission.EmulateFileIOPermissionChecks(String fullPath)
   at System.IO.Directory.InternalGetCurrentDirectory(Boolean checkHost)
   at shim.ShimProgram.Main(String[] args)

... which looks like it is caused due .canonicalize() prefixing the path with "\\?\" -- which, for what I can understand, correct, telling Windows that the path must be taken as-in, without any processing.

Meta

rustc --version --verbose:

rustc 1.82.0 (f6e511eec 2024-10-15)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: f6e511eec7342f59a25f7c0534f1dbea00d01b14
commit-date: 2024-10-15
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.82.0
LLVM version: 19.1.1

Also note that I'm cross-compiling from Linux to Windows, using "x86_64-pc-windows-gnu" as target triple.

[ehuss]

I think this is fundamentally another case of #42869. Some software just does not like \\?\ paths.
I don't know what your use case is, but there is an alternative of std::path::absolute.

[ChrisDenton]

I should also note that current_dir doesn't really work with \\?\ paths. E.g., from the Windows docs for SetCurrentDirectory

Each process has a single current directory made up of two parts:

• A disk designator that is either a drive letter followed by a colon, or a server name and share name (\servername\sharename)
• A directory on the disk designator

Essentially only paths like C:\ or \\server\share are supported. It's possible to set other path types but they will often cause breakages elsewhere in the Windows API.

What Command could do is attempt to remove the \\?\ from the current directory path, if present.

[jbiason]

What Command could do is attempt to remove the \\?\ from the current directory path, if present.

Wouldn't this change the semantics of what the path is? As far as I could understand, \\?\ changes the meaning of the path itself, preventing a bunch of weird processing (like CON) and allows long paths. The last part is important 'cause canonicalize may work fine, but then everything else will fail (ok, it is already failing, it would just fail in a different way).

My guess is that, as far as Rustc is concerned, everything is okay (unless there is something more in #42869 mentioned by @ehuss) and rustc .canonicalize() shouldn't be adding the prefix in the first place.

[ChrisDenton]

Sure, simply removing \\?\ would be wrong (or simply replacing it with \\ in the case of \\?\UNC\).

However, what I've done in other projects is to test if the it's possible to round trip paths without change. E.g. if after converting the path, GetFullPathNameW returns the same path then the path will be the same with or without the \\?\.

[RalfJung]

but the second execution fails with

That's not a Rust error message. I assume it is printed by lsd? So seems like that application does not support canonicalized paths. process::Command supports them just fine, so I will update the issue description.

[quixoticaxis]

I'm not sure what's going on, lsd is written in Rust, as far as I can see from the repo, and the error snippet is 100% .Net exception (most probably C#).

[ChrisDenton]

I'm not sure what's going on, lsd is written in Rust, as far as I can see from the repo, and the error snippet is 100% .Net exception (most probably C#).

Given the name "ShimProgram", I'm assuming they're using a .NET wrapper around lsd. So they're not calling lsd directly.

[jbiason]

That's not a Rust error message. I assume it is printed by lsd? So seems like that application does not support canonicalized paths. process::Command supports them just fine, so I will update the issue description.

So far, I used lsd just as an example ('cause dir is a built-in command and I couldn't "spawn" the command for it). But lsd is not getting any parameters, so it should just list whatever exists in the path the command is being run.

I used lsd here as a simple example, but I have the same issue spawning other commands, written in C++, which get the same issue.

I'm not using any wrapper. If anything is wrapping anything with .NET, it is not being done in my side.

[ChrisDenton]

Did you install lsd via chocolatey or something other package manager? That would explain the shim.

[jbiason]

Did you install lsd via chocolatey or something other package manager? That would explain the shim.

Oh {deity}! Yes, lsd was installed via Chocolatey.

I tried the same "run in a canonicalized path" again using git and did work.

The weird thing is: I'm getting the same run issues with C++ applications cross-compiled from Linux to Windows -- those applications do not receive the canonicalized path as parameters, but also refuse to run with Command when I set the .current_dir() when the path is canonicalized (if I don't canonicalized it, it works flawlessly).

[RalfJung]

I tried the same "run in a canonicalized path" again using git and did work.

Okay, so Rust's Command is likely fine, and it is a per-application thing.

The weird thing is: I'm getting the same run issues with C++ applications cross-compiled from Linux to Windows -- those applications do not receive the canonicalized path as parameters, but also refuse to run with Command when I set the .current_dir() when the path is canonicalized (if I don't canonicalized it, it works flawlessly).

So seems like something in the runtime linked into those applications fails when the current dir is canonicalized? Can you share the error message you are getting for those cases.