Error when running node ps1 script

[rotu]

What version?

0.19.3

Which command?

No response

What happened?

Some scripts fail on proto in Powershell in Windows due to missing node.exe.

E.g. proto run npm -- install esbuild

.\node_modules\.bin\esbuild --version
&: C:\Users\dan\Source\scratch2\node_modules\.bin\esbuild.ps1:24
Line |
  24 |      & "node$exe"  "$basedir/../esbuild/bin/esbuild" $args
     |        ~~~~~~~~~~
     | The term 'node.exe' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program. Check
     | the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

It seems there is a node shim in ~/.proto/bin/node.cmd, which is in my PATH. There is also a bin in C:\Users\dan\.proto\tools\node\20.8.0\node.exe, which is not in my path.

Any logs?

No response

Operating system?

Windows

Architecture?

x64

[milesj]

I'm assuming the node_modules in this case were installing via npm?

[rotu]

I'm assuming the node_modules in this case were installing via npm?

Yep. Here's an example from npm itself:
https://unpkg.com/npm@10.2.0/bin/npm.ps1

I think it would be a good idea for proto (and npm, incidentally) to generate shims which are executables instead of .cmd or .ps1 files. Here are a few good arguments: npm/bin-links#71.

[milesj]

Yeah my initial goal was to generate .exe files on the fly that would basically act like a shim, but I've been unable to get it working yet. That's definitely a future goal.

I have some changes in v0.20 that will help with this issue, but I wouldn't consider it a permanent fix, more of an alternative solution.

[rotu]

I’m not sure but I think it might also do to have a custom file extension, add it to the shell’s PATH_EXT, and register proto.exe as a handler for such files.

I don’t think a PowerShell function would work on Windows though - I think npm exec/run-script tend to start new shells with cmd.exe instead.

[milesj]

In v0.20, we now also create bin symlinks, which should help solve these ".exe" use cases.