Path on windows with slashes and backslashes

[pjljvandelaar]

Dear Alire developers,

While trying to find the root cause of a bug that only occurs on windows, I noticed the following: when typing

 alr printenv --powershell

in the tests directory of the Rejuvenation-Ada project, one gets (something like)

$env:ALIRE = "True"
$env:AUNIT_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\aunit_22.0.0_cbd7a80a"
$env:C_INCLUDE_PATH = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\mingw64\include"
$env:GNATCOLL_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_22.0.0_620c2f23"
$env:GNATCOLL_BUILD_MODE = "PROD"
$env:GNATCOLL_GMP_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_gmp_22.0.0_f3732e5d"
$env:GNATCOLL_ICONV_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_iconv_22.0.0_f3732e5d"
$env:GNATCOLL_OS = "windows"
$env:GNATCOLL_VERSION = "22.0.0"
$env:GNAT_NATIVE_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gnat_native_11.2.4_2f9c5d6d"
$env:GPRBUILD_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gprbuild_22.0.1_c842bbc5"
$env:GPR_PROJECT_PATH = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gnat_native_11.2.4_2f9c5d6d;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gprbuild_22.0.1_c842bbc5;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\aunit_22.0.0_cbd7a80a\lib/gnat;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_22.0.0_620c2f23;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_gmp_22.0.0_f3732e5d\gmp;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\gnatcoll_iconv_22.0.0_f3732e5d\iconv;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\langkit_support_22.0.0_d43df3a9;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libadalang_22.0.0_5f365aa4;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libgpr_22.0.0_30e39dcc\gpr;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\distrib;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\dom;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\input_sources;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\sax;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\schema;C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27\unicode"
$env:LANGKIT_SUPPORT_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\langkit_support_22.0.0_d43df3a9"
$env:LIBADALANG_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libadalang_22.0.0_5f365aa4"
$env:LIBGMP_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libgmp_6.2.1_system"
$env:LIBGPR_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libgpr_22.0.0_30e39dcc"
$env:LIBICONV_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\libiconv_1.17.0_system"
$env:LIBRARY_PATH = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\mingw64\lib"
$env:PATH = "C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gprbuild_22.0.1_c842bbc5/bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gnat_native_11.2.4_2f9c5d6d/bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\usr\bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\usr\local\bin;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\dotnet\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Client SDK\ODBC\170\Tools\Binn\;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\;C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files\Alire\bin;C:\GNATPRO\23.0w\bin;C:\GNATPRO\23.0w-20220211\bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\AppData\Roaming\local\bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Scripts\;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_171\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Graphviz2.38\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.dotnet\tools;C:\Program Files Local\apache-maven-3.6.3\bin;C:\Program Files Local\cvc4;C:\Program Files Local\z3-4.8.9-x64-win\bin;C:/Program Files/Alire\bin;C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\mingw64\bin"
$env:REJUVENATION_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada"
$env:TESTS_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests"
$env:XMLADA_ALIRE_PREFIX = "C:\path\to\Rejuvenation-Ada\tests\alire\cache\dependencies\xmlada_22.0.0_b322ae27"

The PATH value worries me, due to the different slash before the bin directory of the first two entries

C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gprbuild_22.0.1_c842bbc5/bin;
C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.config\alire\cache\dependencies\gnat_native_11.2.4_2f9c5d6d/bin;
C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\usr\bin;
C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\usr\local\bin;

Can it be made consistent, like the other two alire bin directories that are included?

Also one of the last entries, worry me

C:/Program Files/Alire\bin;
C:\Users\laarpjljvd\.cache\alire\msys64\mingw64\bin

Can it be made consistent, i.e. "C:\Program Files\Alire\bin"?

Thanks in advance, Pierre

[Fabien-Chouteau]

@pjljvandelaar indeed it should be all / here. What differentiate gprbuild and gnat_native crates is that they are binary crates and the PATH is set with this in the manifest:

[environment]
PATH.prepend = "${CRATE_ROOT}/bin"

@mosteo We could have a different one for Windows in the manifest using a case, or we could "fix" the path in Alire.

[mosteo]

We have the Portable/Native path types to try and avoid these things, so If we can be consistent that would be the better fix. I guess there's some missing conversion from portable to native.

[mosteo]

The PATH value worries me, due to the different slash before the bin directory of the first two entries

I've located the source of this problem in our sources and I have a fix incoming.

Also one of the last entries, worry me

This seems to happen only for the Alire Power Shell, and also with echo $env:PATH, so probably coming from our installer, will check.

[mosteo]

W.r.t. the C:/Program Files/Alire\bin; PATH part, I'm puzzled because the installer is clearly using backslashes here. As long as it doesn't cause any trouble, I wouldn't lose more sleep over it.

[Fabien-Chouteau]

@mosteo Looking at the issue with:

[environment]
PATH.prepend = "${CRATE_ROOT}/bin"

I don't see a clear solution for this. If we add a process to change / into \ on Windows, when do we apply it? We can make a special case for environment.PATH.

Another solution would be to always have the directory separator at the end of the ${CRATE_ROOT} value so the manifest would look like this.

[environment]
PATH.prepend = "${CRATE_ROOT}bin"

[mosteo]

I don't see a clear solution for this. If we add a process to change / into \ on Windows, when do we apply it?

That's what #1483 addresses. Basically, these are always interpreted as paths, internally stored as portable ('/') and converted accordingly when emitted. My idea was to add the possibility of escaping them somehow down the line, in case a literal '\' is ever wanted on non-Windows (can't think of a use case but...).

I don't think making PATH a particular case works, as this can be WHATEVER_PREFIX, etc, and having a few trigger words seems a recipe for confusion. Another idea was to have VARIABLE.literal.prepend (does not reformat) and VARIABLE.prepend (reformats to native paths), but I thought that was too much at this time.

Finally, after seeing that Git for windows simply uses '/' (it stores paths like C:/foo/bar) and there seems to be no ill effect, maybe we could just do the same. I should first research that Windows is indeed ok with '\' and '/' interchangeably.

For now, I think #1483 is the minimal intervention to keep things under general expectations.