but.exe does not seem to work on windows?

[robinvanpoppel]

Version

0.18.2

Operating System

Windows

Distribution Method

winget (Windows)

Describe the issue

I cannot get the cli (but.exe) to work

Previously the cli (but.exe) was bundled together with the application. Since recently this was changed. The global settings shows two buttons Install but cli and show symlink.

• The show symlink button shows a command meant to be ran on a unix type filesystem. Probably WSL?
• The Install but cli shows a message that installation is not supported on windows. It prompts you to copy gitbutler-tauri.exe and rename the copy to but.exe and put it in the path.

I did the latter and I cannot seem to get any output. All commands I used in the past seem to give empty output.

---

Sidenote: I want to thank you for this marvelous tool!

How to reproduce (Optional)

1. copy gitbutler-tauri.exe and rename the copy to but.exe and put it in the path.
2. Running commands like but init, but log, but rub, but -v, but --help gives no output

Expected behavior (Optional)

1. The but.exe cli reacts to commands
2. It would be nice if creating a symlink on windows worked, or that a small working stub is packaged along gitbutler

Relevant log output (Optional)

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting - I could reproduce it in Powershell and Terminal!

C:\Users\byron\Desktop\but.exe status | Write-Output seems to work, but it won't print errors anyway.

And since this isn't normal behaviour, I think I know what's happening: What we are doing simply doesn't work on Windows, and Windows builds will need their own but.exe binary that isn't also a GUI application. These seem to be extra-special.

And even though the but binary is still not officially released, I think it's something that definitely needs a fix ASAP.

[Byron]

And here is the proof that a dedicated binary works as before.

So the goal of this fix is to adjust the release build to build a binary on Windows.

[Byron]

It seems it's possible to just fix this with some extra code, here is the instructions.

https://chatgpt.com/share/6932b5a9-d3d8-800a-a53c-2ff14559cda7

In short, one wants to do the equivalent of:

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void init_console()
{
    if (AllocConsole()) {
        freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stdout);
        freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stderr);
        freopen("CONIN$",  "r", stdin);
    }
}