Use hard links on Windows instead of batch files

[futsuuu]

Feature Overview

Hard links work without developer mode and administrator permissions unlike symbolic links on Windows.

Why is the feature needed?

1. batch file is slow
2. unneeded prompt Terminate batch job (Y/N)? will be shown on Ctrl-C

Workaround

No response

Example Code

No response

Note

No response

[suzuki-shunsuke]

Thank you for your proposal.
I'm not familiar with Windows and Hard link on Windows, but it's interesting.

Maybe Hard link is useful to solve #2875 .
aqua uses shell scripts and bat files, but this can cause some troubles.

[sapphi-red]

I tried this out by the following steps and it seems to work. I'm not sure if there's any edge cases though.

1. Clone https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-proxy
2. Open that directory
3. Run aqua i
4. Add cmdName, _ = strings.CutSuffix(cmdName, ".exe") after this line: https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-proxy/blob/a0c37569b7752c23aa57bd1b054a791b70fb2891/pkg/cli/proxy.go#L25
5. Run go build .\cmd\aqua-proxy\
6. Make hard link from ./aqua-proxy.exe to cmdx.exe (Run New-Item -ItemType HardLink -Path cmdx.exe -Value ./aqua-proxy.exe if you're using powershell)
7. Run ./cmdx.exe --version. cmdx worked correctly.
8. Edit https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-proxy/blob/a0c37569b7752c23aa57bd1b054a791b70fb2891/aqua/cmdx.yaml#L2 to use different version
9. Run aqua update-checksum
10. Run ./cmdx.exe --version. The different version was downloaded and cmdx worked correctly.

I tried the steps above with powershell. I tried running ./cmdx.exe --version with cmd and git bash; it worked, too.

[W1M0R]

UPDATE: The following issue only occurs if I run aqua inside nushell. Inside powershell/pwsh, it works as expected.

Maybe this will resolve an issue I am having.

I have go 1.22.5 installed globally (via scoop) and go 1.22.4 installed locally (via aqua). As you can see in the PATH, aqua packages should have precedence before scoop packages.

See the following output:

> open aqua.yaml
╭────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│            │ ╭───┬──────────┬──────────╮                    │
│ registries │ │ # │   type   │   ref    │                    │
│            │ ├───┼──────────┼──────────┤                    │
│            │ │ 0 │ standard │ v4.197.0 │                    │
│            │ ╰───┴──────────┴──────────╯                    │
│            │ ╭───┬────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ packages   │ │ # │                  name                  │ │
│            │ ├───┼────────────────────────────────────────┤ │
│            │ │ 1 │ golang/[email protected]                     │ │
│            │ ╰───┴────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
╰────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────╯


> $env.PATH
# PATH output is redacted to show the important parts and ordering
╭────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  6 │ C:\Users\user2\AppData\Local\aquaproj-aqua\bat                                          │
│ 36 │ C:\Users\user2\scoop\shims                                                              │
╰────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

> which go
╭───┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────╮
│ # │ command │                         path                          │   type   │
├───┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 0 │ go      │ C:\Users\user2\AppData\Local\aquaproj-aqua\bat\go.bat │ external │
╰───┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────╯

> which go.exe
╭───┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬──────────╮
│ # │ command │               path                │   type   │
├───┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 0 │ go.exe  │ C:\Users\user2\scoop\shims\go.exe │ external │
╰───┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────────┴──────────╯

> go version
# I didn't expect the global (scoop) version of go to be used.
go version go1.22.5 windows/amd64

> go.bat version
# It shouldn't be necessary to use the .bat extension to force the local (aqua) version of go.
go version go1.22.4 windows/amd64

According to these remarks:

The Windows operating system searches using default file name extensions in the following order of precedence: .exe, .com, .bat, and .cmd. Which means if you're looking for a batch file named, acct.bat, but have an app named acct.exe in the same directory, you must include the .bat extension at the command prompt.

This also has useful information: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1653472/whats-the-relative-order-with-which-windows-search-for-executable-files-in-path

My PATHEXT variable is .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.PY;.PYW;.CPL. This is the default on my machine and I don't want to change it.

This could also be useful: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions//cc723564(v=technet.10)#command-search-sequence

The shell now searches each directory specified by the PATH environment variable, in the order listed, for an executable file matching the command name. If a match is found, the external command (the executable file) executes. If no match is found, the shell reports an error and command processing completes.

If the command name includes a file extension, the shell searches each directory for the exact file name specified by the command name. If the command name does not include a file extension, the shell adds the extensions listed in the PATHEXT environment variable, one by one, and searches the directory for that file name. Note that the shell tries all possible file extensions in a specific directory before moving on to search the next directory (if there is one).

To execute this (C:\>edit) command, the shell searches the current directory and then each directory in the search path. Assuming that the PATHEXT variable contains .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD, each directory is searched for EDIT.COM, EDIT.EXE, EDIT.BAT and EDIT.CMD before the shell moves on to the next search directory.

According to the description above, using go without the .bat extension should still resolve to go.bat, but somehow a go.exe is found, and executed instead.

Maybe the issue I am having is related to this nushell issue:

1. Windows Nushell does not respect %PATHEXT% nushell/nushell#7171
2. Support running batch files without typing their extension nushell/nushell#6278

[W1M0R]

I really like what the aqua project has accomplished and the tool is a very good contribution to the Windows ecosystem. Unfortunately, the current approach using bat files is problematic in many ways (ctrl-c and signal forwarding) and makes the aqua experience on Windows average.

It looks like proto has a good solution to this issue, and very helpful PRs that explain the issue in detail and how to resolve it:

1. https://github.com/moonrepo/proto/blob/de3803ef40b1982a36722d8f088505246e4eb19d/crates/cli/src/main_shim.rs#L4
2. new: Create a new shim executable. moonrepo/proto#315
3. Windows shims show Terminate batch job (Y/N)? on ctrl-c moonrepo/proto#269

Hope this helps!

[suzuki-shunsuke]

I'm working on this.

• feat: use hard links on Windows #3005
• use hard links on Windows aquaproj.github.io#1049

[suzuki-shunsuke]

The prerelease version v2.30.0-3 v2.30.0-1 is out.
Could you try this and give us your feedback?

I've tested this using Git Bash for Windows, Powershell, and Command Prompt on Windows.

Update aqua by aqua upa.

aqua upa v2.30.0-3

If aqua upa doesn't work well, you can use aqua-installer.

aqua-installer v2.30.0-3

Run aqua i -l, then aqua-proxy would be installed, bat directory would be removed, and shell scripts on bin directory would be removed and hard links would be created on bin directory.

aqua i -l

[W1M0R]

Yes, I'll give it a try and get back to you.

[suzuki-shunsuke]

I'm working on fixing an issue.

https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-registry/actions/runs/9953893071/job/27498390778#step:4:225

FATA[0000] aqua failed                                   aqua_version=2.30.0-1 env=windows/amd64 error="install aqua-proxy: remove a file to replace it with a hard link: remove C:\\Users\\runneradmin\\AppData\\Local\\aquaproj-aqua\\bin\\aqua.exe: Access is denied." program=aqua

---

Updated: Resolved this issue.

[W1M0R]

I can confirm that it works on my end. Thanks @suzuki-shunsuke!

My PATH:

$Env:PATH = @(
    (Join-Path $Env:PROTO_HOME "shims")
    (Join-Path $Env:PROTO_HOME "bin")
    (Join-Path $Env:AQUA_ROOT_DIR "bin")
    (Join-Path $Env:USERPROFILE "scoop/shims")
    $Env:PATH
) -join [IO.Path]::PathSeparator

My aqua.yaml:

---
# aqua - Declarative CLI Version Manager
# https://aquaproj.github.io/
# checksum:
#   enabled: true
#   require_checksum: true
#   supported_envs:
#   - all
registries:
- type: standard
  ref: v4.204.0  # renovate: depName=aquaproj/aqua-registry
packages:
- name: charmbracelet/[email protected]
- name: charmbracelet/[email protected]

The output:

❯ aqua i -l
INFO[0000] creating a hard link to aqua-proxy            aqua_version=2.30.0-1 command=glow env=windows/amd64 program=aqua
INFO[0000] creating a hard link to aqua-proxy            aqua_version=2.30.0-1 command=gum env=windows/amd64 program=aqua

❯ gcm gum | select source

Source
------
C:\Users\user2\AppData\Local\aquaproj-aqua\bin\gum.exe

❯ gum --version            
INFO[0000] download and unarchive the package            aqua_version=2.30.0-1 env=windows/amd64 exe_name=gum package_name=charmbracelet/gum package_version=v0.14.1 program=aqua registry=standard
WARN[0002] remove a temporal file                        aqua_version=2.30.0-1 env=windows/amd64 error="remove C:\\Users\\user2\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\178831399: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." exe_name=gum package_name=charmbracelet/gum package_version=v0.14.1 program=aqua registry=standard
gum version v0.14.1 (657c76e)

[suzuki-shunsuke]

Thank you.
I've published the prerelease version v2.30.0-3.

I'll take a look at the warning.

WARN[0002] remove a temporal file                        aqua_version=2.30.0-1 env=windows/amd64 error="remove C:\\Users\\user2\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\178831399: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." exe_name=gum package_name=charmbracelet/gum package_version=v0.14.1 program=aqua registry=standard

[suzuki-shunsuke]

v2.30.0 is out 🎉
https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua/releases/tag/v2.30.0
https://aquaproj.github.io/docs/reference/lazy-install#on-windows

[W1M0R]

Thank you for the great work you are doing!