odin run . -- <args> incorrectly forwards arguments on Windows

[clindholm]

Context

Odin: dev-2024-10-nightly:af9ae48
OS: Windows 10 Home Basic (version: 22H2), build 19045.5011
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor
RAM: 16305 MiB
Backend: LLVM 18.1.8

Given the following program:

package main

import "core:os"
import "core:fmt"

main :: proc() {
	for a, i in os.args[1:] {
		fmt.println(i, a)
	}
}

Let's say I run it with odin run . -- test\ test test
I'd expect:

0 test\
1 test
2 test

Instead I get:

0 test"  test  test

odin run . -- test\ test\ test gives:

0 test"  test"
1 test

Quoting makes no difference:
odin run . -- "test\" 'test\' test still gives:

0 test"  test"
1 test

Escaping does work:
odin run . -- test\\ test

0 test\
1 test

But still, that's not necessary with cli programs in general on Windows, and it's not consistent - escaping only escapes the final backslash:
odin run . -- te\\st\\ test

0 te\\st\
1 test

I tried looking at the code for os.args but I haven't worked with the Windows API so I couldn't easily tell what's going on there. I'll still take a closer look, but I thought if I report it someone else would have a fix much faster (or at all 😄).

Just in case, I also tried similar code with nodejs to make sure it's not something weird with my setup.

[flysand7]

Which shell you're using? cmd, powershell or pwsh? Does the problem reproduce on all three of them?

Does the problem reproduce if instead run -- <args>, you first did build and then run the actual executable with the flags?

These are the things I would ask, because I myself have run into the issue with command line arguments being inconsistent across shells, and sometimes depending on whether -- is used within the command line.

E.g. below I have saved up two screenshots, of a program that prints os.args one by one, being ran from cmd and pwsh, with and without -- as one of the arguments.

I'm asking because Odin performs minimal possible parsing of the arguments. It actually doesn't parse the command line arguments, as far as I know and uses windows API to parse them for us. Which may not be our fault per se... but still something worth investigating or coming up with a better solution maybe.

[clindholm]

Good points!
I should've said that I did test in different shells and that the problem shows up in all of them.

But, I did forget to check with the actual executable, I was just sure I'd seen the problem there as well but lo and behold - no issues!

Which is great news, but a little embarrassing. At least we know that the bug is just a tiny dev annoyance then.

Thanks for setting me straight @flysand7 😆

This could probably be closed? It is still a bug, but probably not worth spending much time on, I guess.

[laytan]

Still a bug in the way odin run forwards arguments so I won't close it