RunCommandOnSet config directory resolution

[c4deszes]

I'm trying to automate the installation and configuration of Git. What I'd like to end up with is a config file that's shared with other platforms and a setup script for each.

Git is installed via WinGet, the resource installs fine under winget configure. Since I've seen a couple of examples using RunCommandOnSet I've already automated the installs of some portable programs. I also wanted to use this mechanism to install common Python libraries, but it just doesn't seem to be able to find the files relative to where I'm running winget from.

My folder structure looks like:

- root
  - config
    - .gitconfig (file that I want to read in the script)
  - guests
    - win11
	  - winget
	    - software.winget (file that describes the resources)
	  (running winget from win11 folder)

With this as my initial WinGet configuration file:

# Created using winget configure export 1.12.350
# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://aka.ms/configuration-dsc-schema/0.3
$schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShell/DSC/main/schemas/2023/08/config/document.json
metadata:
  winget:
    processor:
      identifier: "dscv3"
resources:

# Git (latest)
- name: winget_Git.Git
  type: Microsoft.WinGet/Package
  metadata:
    description: "Install Git.Git"
  properties:
    id: "Git.Git"
    source: "winget"

# Git configuration
- name: winget_Git.Config
  type: Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/RunCommandOnSet
  metadata:
    description: "Configure Git global settings"
  dependsOn:
    - winget_Git.Git
  properties:
    executable: 'pwsh'
    arguments:
      - "-Command"
      - |
        $CommonConfig = "../../config/.gitconfig"

        Write-Output "Applying common git configuration from $CommonConfig"
        git config --file $CommonConfig --list | ForEach-Object {
            $parts = $_ -split '=', 2
            git config --global $parts[0] $parts[1]
            Write-Output "Set git config $($parts[0]) to $($parts[1])"
        }
        Write-Output "Git configuration applied."

Some of the things I've tried:

• Changing to an absolute path obviously works, but it's not so good

• ${WinGetConfigRoot} variable doesn't seem to be resolved when used in the script

• Both $env:DSCConfigRoot and $env:DSC_CONFIG_ROOT in the script seem to be empty (Need a way to reference file paths relative to the config file #75, Rename DSCConfigRoot environment variable to DSC_CONFIG_ROOT and handle existing value #335)

  • In the logs I don't see these ever being set, but based on the related issues/PRs it should be there
  • I tried these with a simple New-Item script and it created the file in C:\

• Also tried pwsh -CommandWithArgs and passing another element (${WinGetConfigRoot} and $env:DSC_CONFIG_ROOT) in the argument list but that doesn't work either

• Also tried using PSDesiredStateConfiguration/File where I copy the config to
  a known temporary location. Here ${WinGetConfigRoot} is resolved, but then I got this:

  DEBUG dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 903: Module: PSDesiredStateConfiguration, Name: File, Property: {"type":"File","ensure":"Present","destinationPath":"C:\\tmp\\.gitconfig","sourcePath":"C:\\Work\\pc_config\\guests\\win11\\winget\\..\\..\\..\\config\\.gitconfig"}
  TRACE dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 913: The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and configure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig".{"error":"Exception: You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression."}
  

   # Copy file
   - name: winget_Git.ConfigCopy
     type: PSDesiredStateConfiguration/File
     metadata:
   	description: "Configure Git global settings"
     dependsOn:
   	- winget_Git.Git
     properties:
   	ensure: Present
   	type: File
   	sourcePath: ${WinGetConfigRoot}\..\..\..\config\.gitconfig
   	destinationPath: C:\tmp\.gitconfig

Questions:

• How could a script running via RunCommandOnSet know where the config directory is?
• Does it know where the winget configure was called from?
• Why doesn't the ${WinGetConfigRoot} or DSCConfigRoot/DSC_CONFIG_ROOT resolve under RunCommandOnSet resource?
• What's with the File resource? Can it not handle local paths or is it thinking it's remote because of the double backslashes?

Other issues I've encountered which made debugging very difficult:

• There are no logs under RunCommandSet, not in the console nor in the DiagOutputDir that would help me understand what the script is doing, where it fails, what it's current directory is, etc.
• Exit code detection seems to be faulty, with the most basic example I could throw together the console shows resource as successful and even the logs show a zero exit code

  properties:
    executable: 'pwsh'
    arguments:
      - "-Command"
      - "exit 1"
    exitCode: 0

Running DSC version: 3.1.2
WinGet: 1.12.350
OS: Windows 10 (21H1)
Powershell: 5.1.19041.906 / 7.5.4

dsc resource list
Microsoft.DSC.Debug/Echo                    Resource  1.0.0     gs--t---
Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/RunCommandOnSet  Resource  0.1.0     gs------
Microsoft.DSC/Assertion                     Group     0.1.0     gs--t---
Microsoft.DSC/Group                         Group     0.1.0     gs--t---
Microsoft.DSC/Include                       Importer  0.1.0     gs--t---
Microsoft.DSC/PowerShell                    Adapter   0.1.0     gs--t-e-
Microsoft.WinGet/AdminSettings              Resource  1.12.350  gs--t-e-
Microsoft.WinGet/Package                    Resource  1.12.350  gsx-t-e-
Microsoft.WinGet/Source                     Resource  1.12.350  gsx-t-e-
Microsoft.WinGet/UserSettingsFile           Resource  1.12.350  gsx-t-e-
Microsoft.Windows/RebootPending             Resource  0.1.0     g-------
Microsoft.Windows/Registry                  Resource  0.1.0     gs-w-d--
Microsoft.Windows/WMI                       Adapter   0.1.0     g-------
Microsoft.Windows/WindowsPowerShell         Adapter   0.1.0     gs--t-e-
Microsoft/OSInfo                            Resource  0.1.0     g-----e-

[mimachniak]

Hi can you run this with debug flag dsc --trace-level debug config

[c4deszes]

Ran dsc --trace-level debug config set -f .\winget\software.winget, I had to remove the dependsOn as it complained about a syntax error. Anyway end result is that here I clearly see in the logs that DSC_CONFIG_ROOT is being set.

Trace-level is Debug
Running DSC version: 3.1.2
Setting DSC_CONFIG_ROOT env var as 'C:\Work\pc_config\guests\win11\winget'
Reading input from file C:\Work\pc_config\guests\win11\winget\software.winget

And unsurprisingly the script executes fine. What is then the difference between winget configure and dsc config ...?

My comments on the logs and exit code still stand, rerunning the exit 1 sample yields the following:

...
Getting current state for set by invoking get on 'Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/RunCommandOnSet' using 'runcommandonset'
2025-12-24T10:08:28.059412Z DEBUG dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 699: Invoking command 'runcommandonset' with args Some(["--trace-format", "json", "get"])
2025-12-24T10:08:28.068247Z  WARN dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 882: trace_message="PID 1304: This resource is not idempotent"
2025-12-24T10:08:28.069383Z DEBUG dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 660: Process 'runcommandonset' id 1304 exited with code 0
2025-12-24T10:08:28.070311Z  INFO dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 183: Invoking set 'Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/RunCommandOnSet' using 'runcommandonset'
2025-12-24T10:08:28.070941Z DEBUG dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 699: Invoking command 'runcommandonset' with args Some(["--trace-format", "json", "set"])
2025-12-24T10:08:28.081537Z  WARN dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 882: trace_message="PID 1564: This resource is not idempotent"
2025-12-24T10:08:28.263127Z DEBUG dsc_lib::dscresources::command_resource: 660: Process 'runcommandonset' id 1564 exited with code 0
2025-12-24T10:08:28.264227Z  INFO dsc_lib::dscresources::dscresource: 545: diff: key 'exitCode' missing

Here the last entry might provide some insight, but even if the configuration is wrong the default expected exit code should be zero, but the script's exit code is somehow masked.

- metadata:
    Microsoft.DSC:
      duration: PT0.2103935S
  name: GitConfig
  type: Microsoft.DSC.Transitional/RunCommandOnSet
  result:
    beforeState:
      executable: pwsh
      arguments:
      - -Command
      - exit 1
    afterState:
      executable: pwsh
      arguments:
      - -Command
      - exit 1
      exitCode: 1
    changedProperties:
    - exitCode
messages: []
hadErrors: false

[mimachniak]

For DSC run try to change to PSscript: https://github.com/PowerShell/DSC/blob/main/dsc/examples/winps_script.dsc.yaml