Please update the scoop package

[mintty]

Please address the request to the scoop package maintainer.

[SonaliBendre]

Let's maintain our own scoop bucket with mintty apps

[mintty]

Not sure what you mean. There is only one wsltty (i.e. mintty targetted to WSL). So why a distinct bucket? And what's the problem with the "extras" bucket?

[SonaliBendre]

And what's the problem with the "extras" bucket?

https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/issues/304#issuecomment-1046120781

[mintty]

So I interpret your sparse comment so that you think the package is orphaned and you'd like to take over, or make a fresh one. Actually, it might be good to address the issue at the scoop project, to ask their opinion about handling the situation. In either case, feel free to simply make such a package.

[rashil2000]

Hey @mintty

I have previously taken a jab at fixing the Scoop package, but I failed. You can see my attempts here - https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Extras/pull/2318

Basically, what we want to achieve is that the install.bat file should install everything inside the specified scoop package folder (denoted by $dir in the manifest). Likewise, the uninstall.bat file should remove stuff from this folder and cleanup things like shortcuts etc.

The user configuration files should also be stored in the same folder (can be in a separate sub-folder, if desired).

Thanks in advance!

[mintty]

You can pass a desired installation target directory as a parameter to the install script, and a desired configuration directory as a second parameter. Apart from that, the error quoted in that issue

Running installer... The batch file cannot be found.

occurs in the scoop wrapper for installation, which I do not know. There have been a few changes for the installer as you can see in git log. If you can identify a commit that made it fail, we can debug further. Please check first whether the latest working scoop package, the current one, would still build and install in the current scoop environment.

[rashil2000]

Yes, that's what I tried:

    "installer": {
        "file": "install.bat",
        "args": [
            "\"$dir\"",
            "\"$dir\\config\""
        ],
        "keep": true
    },
    "uninstaller": {
        "file": "uninstall.bat"
    },

Will test it once again and let you know. Just one question. Can the batch file be invoked from any directory? Or do we need to cd somewhere first, as done in the pre_install step here?

    "pre_install": [
        "Set-Content \"$dir\\install.bat\" ('@cd %~dp0', (Get-Content \"$dir\\install.bat\")) -Encoding ASCII -Force",
        "Set-Content \"$dir\\uninstall.bat\" ('@cd %~dp0', (Get-Content \"$dir\\uninstall.bat\")) -Encoding ASCII -Force"
    ],

[mintty]

It needs to be run from the directory where the archive was unpacked, to have the local reference to all the files it copies.

[rashil2000]

I have tried multiple things but I'm still not able to make it work. This is where I am right now:

{
    "version": "3.5.3",
    "description": "Mintty as a terminal for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).",
    "homepage": "https://github.com/mintty/wsltty",
    "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
    "architecture": {
        "64bit": {
            "url": "https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases/download/3.5.3/wsltty-3.5.3-x86_64.cab#/dl.7z",
            "hash": "977b5e23a9cea8d1f6a5fc74966601ccfd5dd6521b071e18116285f19e08c0b0",
            "extract_dir": "wsltty-3.5.3-x86_64"
        },
        "32bit": {
            "url": "https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases/download/3.5.3/wsltty-3.5.3-i686.cab#/dl.7z",
            "hash": "81dc5bfc4bec5dc92c90d14390ff9d2d9d5aeb9f763873f44656e5d39073e699",
            "extract_dir": "wsltty-3.5.3-i686"
        }
    },
    "pre_install": [
        "Set-Content \"$dir\\test.bat\" (@('@echo off', 'echo curr %cd%', 'echo args now:', 'echo %1', 'echo %2'))"
    ],
    "installer": {
        "script": [
            "Push-Location $dir",
            "& \"$dir\\test.bat\" \"$dir\" \"$dir\\config\"",
            "& \"$dir\\install.bat\" \"$dir\" \"$dir\\config\"",
            "Pop-Location"
        ]
    },
    "uninstaller": {
        "script": [
            "Push-Location $dir",
            "& \"$dir\\uninstall.bat\"",
            "Pop-Location"
        ]
    },
    "persist": "config",
    "checkver": "github",
    "autoupdate": {
        "architecture": {
            "64bit": {
                "url": "https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases/download/$version/wsltty-$version-x86_64.cab#/dl.7z",
                "extract_dir": "wsltty-$version-x86_64"
            },
            "32bit": {
                "url": "https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases/download/$version/wsltty-$version-i686.cab#/dl.7z",
                "extract_dir": "wsltty-$version-i686"
            }
        }
    }
}

I created a test.bat file in pre_install step to echo the current directory and supplied args. Could you please test it and see what's wrong? The command would be scoop install <full path to above JSON file>.

[rashil2000]

I think there's a bug in install.bat - it doesn't work if the arguments (paths) given to it contain spaces.

[mintty]

Please cross-check with space-less arguments, to narrow down the issue. Trying to debug myself, after a bunch of updates, scoop install C:\tmp\wsltty.scoop (with the contents above) tells me: Couldn't find manifest for 'C'. which I don't understand.

[mintty]

OK, renaming to scoop.json (strange restriction), it says wsltty 3.5.3 was installed. It runs just a second, however, so I have a vague feeling that it does not really work. Trying to debug that, I tried another install which says

WARN  'wsltty' (3.5.3) is already installed.
Use 'scoop update wsltty' to install a new version.

But either update or uninstall claim ERROR 'C:\tmp\wsltty.json' isn't installed. so I'm stuck with further debugging. Seems to be a scoop bug that it doesn't have a clear view of what's installed or not.

[mintty]

OK, after manual removal of %USERPROFILE%\scoop\apps\wsltty I can install again, and it works. Postinstall does not create a context menu short "WSL Terminal" (which I'd suggest to do) but it can be added via the WSLtty start menu entry. So back to the issue, do you have a space in your user profile name?

[rashil2000]

Yes, I do have a space in the fullpath to \scoop\apps folder.

[mintty]

Spaces in the user name had been fixed before (#230) but apparently not for the case of parameters to install.bat.

[rashil2000]

Additionally, since you have tested the manifest, does the uninstallation complete successfully? Or does it require the environment variable installdir to be set externally first?

(I was able to test installation by temporarily providing a non-space path, but this did not work for uninstallation).

[mintty]

With the quirky parameter passing mechanism of DOS/Windows scripts ("batch files"), it seems to be impossible to apply quoting properly so that passing space-embedding parameters would work. There is a workaround, however. Please try to set environment variables APPDATA and LOCALAPPDATA before calling install.bat, and do that without parameters.

[rashil2000]

The issue with setting these variables would be that the files would be installed in subfolders of $dir.

• If I set LOCALAPPDATA to $dir, it will create a subfolder '$dir\wsltty' within it and put the files there.
• If I set APPDATA to $dir\config, it will create a subfolder '$dir\config\wsltty' and store files there.

The parent scoop folder is already called 'wsltty', so this can cause confusion among users.

[mintty]

Tweaked the installer, please test: set installdir=... and configdir=... before running install.bat (now without parameters); set installdir=... before running uninstall should also work

[rashil2000]

Just tried, it ignored the variables (installdir, configdir) specified and installed it to AppData and LocalAppData. I think you need to remove these two lines:

https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/blob/5cee2c341b4a29c17167bfc393f1c907d71540e3/install.bat#L7-L8

[rashil2000]

If I remove these two lines, there's another problem now. The line removes all the bat files from the current directory and installation fails 🤔

https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/blob/5cee2c341b4a29c17167bfc393f1c907d71540e3/install.bat#L26

[mintty]

I has messed up the previous tweak, now fixed. Works for me now. Do you by any chance call the script within the target installdir? That would not work indeed. The assumption is that the files are unpacked in a temporary directory, then installed to its target, as typical Windows packages do.

[rashil2000]

Okay, everything is working as intended now.

Do you plan to make another release, or instead edit the current release files to include the patched install.bat?

[mintty]

Next mintty release would be some time this month I think, with some stunning new feature... If you'd like a fix release, though, I'll make one. (Patching an existing release is generally not appreciated.)

[rashil2000]

No worries, it is up to you. The Scoop mintty package is already functional (it just installs to the default AppData location), so we can wait for the next release. Just ping me on this thread and I will update the manifest.

[mintty]

Released 3.6.0.