mtkennerly
Shawl Converts Scoop App Paths to “Absolute” Paths
Description
Scoop installs applications in a directory structure where the current folder is a symlink pointing to the actual versioned application directory. This allows for seamless upgrades and rollbacks. However, when using Shawl to add a service, it automatically resolves the current symlink to an absolute path, which is problematic when upgrading Scoop apps.
For example, running the following command:
sudo shawl add --name nginx --cwd C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\current -- C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\current\nginx.exe -c "C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\current\conf\nginx.conf"
results in Shawl storing the resolved absolute path instead of keeping the current symlink. This behavior makes version updates ineffective, as Shawl continues pointing to an outdated path rather than the updated current symlink.
C:\code\scoop\apps\shawl\current\shawl.exe run --name nginx --cwd \\?\C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\1.27.4 -- C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\current\nginx.exe -c C:\code\scoop\apps\nginx\current\conf\nginx.conf
Expected Behavior
Shawl should respect the current symlink as it is and avoid converting it to an absolute path. This would allow Scoop-managed applications to update seamlessly without requiring manual reconfiguration in Shawl.
Possible Solutions
Provide an option to preserve symlinks instead of resolving them. Allow users to manually specify whether paths should be resolved or not. Would it be possible to implement such a feature? This would greatly improve compatibility with Scoop-managed applications.
Hi! For now, you can avoid this behavior by using sc to create the service instead of shawl add.
An option to preserve symlinks could make sense. I'll look into that.
