Unable to Execute CLI Application with user variable

[Stacks]

Hi Team!

 

I have a workflow I've made that passes alfred arguments to a CLI application and executes it using the "External Script" option for ZSH, as argv, like so:

command -q ${query}

 

This no longer works on the latest pre-release (5.1.2) and quit working (no changes), so I have reached out to support. I found that it does work if I replace with the full path, i.e. 
/users/user.name/.bin/command -q ${query}

 

However, that path will be different depending on the user, so it's not ideal. However, using "~/.bin/command -q" does not work and returns a "Command not found"

 

What is the best way of handling this? All of the above work successfully from the CLI directly. 

[vitor]

31 minutes ago, Stacks said:

I found that it does work if I replace with the full path, i.e. 
/users/user.name/.bin/command -q ${query}

Indeed. This is the correct approach.

 

31 minutes ago, Stacks said:

However, that path will be different depending on the user

 

Instead of /Users/username, do ${HOME} which works the same but will be relative to the user.

 

Alternatively, do source ~/.zshenv beforehand as that’s bound to be the difference (see Alfred release notes).

 

To understand more, see Understanding the Scripting Environment.

[Stacks]

Thank you for sharing that link - I searched all across the Alfred docs and hadn't see it.

Also thanks for mentioning $HOME - I didn't see that in the list of Alfred vars when I exported an initial list, so wasn't sure if one existed.

 

Adding an "export PATH=" to the top of the script resolved the issue, and appears to handle the ~ correctly.

 

 

[Stacks]

Can you point me towards what specific release notes you are mentioning? I didn't see anything specific that mentions a need to import/source.

[Andrew]

@Stacks in the current 5.1.2 pre-release, I added the --no-rcs flag when selecting the /bin/zsh script language in a Script Filter or Run Script. This change is to prevent something in a .zshenv file from breaking the expected output in a script.

 

10 hours ago, Stacks said:

Can you point me towards what specific release notes you are mentioning?

 

This is mentioned here: https://www.alfredapp.com/changelog/ but not yet expanded upon as we are still in the pre-release. If this change sticks through to the 5.1.2 general release, we will create a KB article to detail this change.

 

Having said that, this change should not affect your workflow if you're using External Script as the script language.

 

Would it be possible to share the workflow so we could take a look at why you're seeing a difference? Are you using a .zshenv file, if so, could we see the contents?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Stacks]

Thanks for clarifying - I am using "Run Script" with /bin/zsh & input as argv, and the zshenv file includes the import path of the rust executables ("$HOME/.cargo/env") so that would explain why it doesn't work after migrating (and why adding "export PATH=$PATH:~/.cargo/bin/" allows it to work again)

 

I'll see if I can migrate to an external script and test.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Stacks

[xilopaint]

On 6/29/2023 at 7:11 AM, Andrew said:

@Stacks in the current 5.1.2 pre-release, I added the --no-rcs flag when selecting the /bin/zsh script language in a Script Filter or Run Script. This change is to prevent something in a .zshenv file from breaking the expected output in a script.

 

 

This is mentioned here: https://www.alfredapp.com/changelog/ but not yet expanded upon as we are still in the pre-release. If this change sticks through to the 5.1.2 general release, we will create a KB article to detail this change.

 

Having said that, this change should not affect your workflow if you're using External Script as the script language.

 

Would it be possible to share the workflow so we could take a look at why you're seeing a difference? Are you using a .zshenv file, if so, could we see the contents?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

 

This is a cool feature. I'll be updating my workflows with this as soon as 5.1.2 gets stable.

[xilopaint]

@Andrew @vitor Should we expect the workflows to run faster with the new --no-rcs flag since these files won’t be sourced?

 

Also, are we close to the release of the stable 5.1.2? I want to update a couple of workflows and should decide if I'll wait for 5.1.2.

[vitor]

Speed depends on if the user has a ~/.zshenv or not and what it does. But it should never be slower.

 

/bin/zsh --no-rcs gracefully switches to /bin/zsh on older Alfred versions.

[xilopaint]

19 hours ago, vitor said:

Speed depends on if the user has a ~/.zshenv or not and what it does. But it should never be slower.

 

Is it only for ~/.zshenv or ~/.zshrc as well?

[vitor]

~/.zshrc Was already ignored in normal operation. Only ~/.zshenv is different.