How can one deploy Windows Terminal from command line?

[Tembocs]

I've built Windows Terminal successful from command line. Running WindowsTerminal.exe gives a white blank window. How can I deploy it from command line? I couldn't see any instructions on how to do this.

[zadjii-msft]

We don't currently have any guidance on this. If you can deploy the CascadiaPackage from the command line, that would install the terminal.
There should be a script named Install-AppxPacage or similar that should install it

[oising]

I'll write some guidance, @zadjii-msft

[Tembocs]

I'll write some guidance, @zadjii-msft

Thanks, @oising

[mdtauk]

A command line option to load a particular profile perhaps? And maybe even an override to hide the tabs so its a single console instance only?

winterminal.exe -p "ubuntu_dark" -s
-p = Profile
-s = Single Instance

[zadjii-msft]

@mdtauk this isn't about adding support for commandline args, this is about deploying the appxpackage on your machine without opening Visual Studio. This workflow used to be better understood, but since the process of deploying the app was just marginally faster with Visual Studio, I've stopped deploying it from the commandline myself :/

[mdtauk]

@zadjii-msft My apologies, I thought it was about opening from the Command Line

[Tembocs]

We don't currently have any guidance on this. If you can deploy the CascadiaPackage from the command line, that would install the terminal.
There should be a script named Install-AppxPacage or similar that should install it

@zadjii-msft I can't see a script with such a name in the repository.

[zadjii-msft]

That's my bad, I tried replying on mobile. This is why you don't check work email on your phone.

The actual script is Add-AppDevPackage.ps1, It'll be under something like src\cascadia\CascadiaPackage\AppPackages\CascadiaPackage_1.0.0.0_x64_Debug_Test

[mKay00]

Are you sure it isn't this one ".\Terminal\build\scripts\Create-AppxBundle.ps1"?

[DHowett-MSFT]

@mKay00 It is extremely not that one.

[oising]

That's my bad, I tried replying on mobile. This is why you don't check work email on your phone.

The actual script is Add-AppDevPackage.ps1, It'll be under something like src\cascadia\CascadiaPackage\AppPackages\CascadiaPackage_1.0.0.0_x64_Debug_Test

This is the one I'm looking at and it doesn't work as advertised - surprise lol. it just blows up with a signing error for me, almost immediately. As with building the solution has proven to be for many, I think installing the package from the CLI is going to be just as hairy. I'm trying to cover all angles by using the Windows 10 sandbox as a clean-room environment to install the AppX. I can imagine people are going to be emailing and exchanging zips of the appx with each other behind the scenes and I don't want to accidentally rely on something that's part of my development environment. I thought this would be a quick win but... hahaha, they never are.

[oising]

@miniksa "Mass-Chaos?" LOL -- we're gonna need that one often.

[oising]

btw, Windows Sandbox rocks hard.

[miniksa]

@miniksa Michael Niksa FTE "Mass-Chaos?" LOL -- we're gonna need that one often.

I needed something to trigger the bot and was feeling a bit silly.

[oising]

Just an update here, albeit a rather pathetic one. I spent an unreasonable amount of time struggling with SignTool as it spat out arcane error after error and I had to give up. It seems that signing an AppX is best left to Zeus, or Loki or something. I have no problems making the pfx, ensuring the OIDs are correct, that the Issuer matches that in the AppManifest.xml, that the correct hash algorithm is used etc etc, and the thing just keeps spewing failure codes and writes absolutely nothing in the ETW logs either.

I am going to just suggest that people continue to deploy by using Visual Studio unless someone else knows definitively why SignTool won't play ball with appx, appxsym nor msix files.

[zadjii-msft]

Note the README does say

make sure you're building & deploying CascadiaPackage in Visual Studio

But I (and many others) have no idea how to do this (or why, since we already just built the app in powershell per the instructions).

It seems like there's a command missing in the powershell instructions, which tells us how to either a) install or b) run the Terminal.

(from @mikemaccana)

@adiviness How do you deploy Cascadia?

[DHowett-MSFT]

Duping to #926 (more info in there)