[kana001-bit]

Fixes #1005

On Windows, spawning a shell by bare name (e.g. cmd.exe) fails with File not found: and an empty path when the calling process's current working directory contains that file, e.g. when an Electron app is launched with its cwd set to C:\Windows\System32.

Cause

path_util::get_shell_path first checks whether the relative name exists in the process cwd, but in that case it returns shellpath, which is still empty:

if (file_exists(filename)) {
  return shellpath;   // empty
}

startProcess then rejects the empty path, so the error message also shows no path.

Fix

Return filename when it exists in the cwd. The resolved path is only used for the existence check in startProcess; the process itself is still created from the command line, and the cwd is part of the normal CreateProcessW search order, so the spawn behaves the same as it does from any other cwd.

Repro

process.chdir('C:/Windows/System32');
require('node-pty').spawn('cmd.exe', [], {}); // Error: File not found:

Tests

Added a relative file test to windowsTerminal.test.ts that changes the process cwd to %windir%\System32 and spawns cmd.exe. It fails with File not found: before the fix and passes after it, with useConptyDll both false and true.

Found while debugging a downstream report in Orca: stablyai/orca#17083

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[kana001-bit]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

[Roberto Bandini (robertobandini)]

Hi kana001-bit! Thank you for the fix.

We hit the same bug in Freelens, an Electron app (freelensapp/freelens#2918): with wsl.exe as the terminal shell, the terminal failed with File not found: when the app started with C:\Windows\System32 as its current folder. I reproduced it with node-pty 1.2.0-beta.18 on Windows 11, and the full path works from the same folder.

While reading get_shell_path I found a second gap in the same function: the loop that splits Path on ; never adds the part after the last ;, so the last directory is not searched when Path does not end with ;. With node-pty 1.2.0-beta.18, started from C:\, cmd.exe fails with File not found: when Path is C:\NonExistent;C:\Windows\System32, and starts when it is C:\NonExistent;C:\Windows\System32; or C:\Windows\System32;C:\NonExistent. It may fit in this PR or in a follow-up.

In Freelens we're adding a lookup on PATH before calling node-pty (freelensapp/freelens#2941).

[kana001-bit]

Thanks Roberto Bandini (@robertobandini), good to know it hit Freelens too, and that it still reproduces on 1.2.0-beta.18.

I confirmed the second gap: with Path set to C:\NonExistent;C:\Windows\System32, cmd.exe fails with File not found: , and it starts with a trailing ; or with the order reversed. To keep this PR focused, I opened a separate PR with its own test: #1013