Install-ChocolateyShortcut - Don't create a folder if environment variable is used

[FranklinYu]

What You Are Seeing?

New folder %MyVar% appears in current directory when installing package with Install-ChocolateyShortcut.

What is Expected?

This folder does not appear, because in runtime the folder will be expanded with value of environment variable MyVar instead of verbatim %MyVar%.

How Did You Get This To Happen? (Steps to Reproduce)

1. Create a package with choco new.

2. In chocolateyInstall.ps1, add following statement:

   $args = @{
       shortcutFilePath = $shortcut
       targetPath = $exe
       WorkingDirectory = '%MyVar%'
   }
   Install-ChocolateyShortcut -ShortcutFilePath @args

3. Pack the package with choco pack.

4. Install the package.

Possible Cause

Install-ChocolateyShortcut automatically created the folder for working directory is the folder is missing. This is an (undocumented) feature.

When there is variable in it (such as %AppData%), Windows will not set the working directory to a folder named %AppData% in current directory. Instead, it will try to expand the variable, and set the result as working directory, at runtime. User can change the working directory by changing the environment variable, without changing the shortcut file itself. This is useful in multi-user environment, where each user has different %AppData%. Current helper creates the shortcut just well, so a small modification will be sufficient to support this pattern.

Output Log

(Omitted.)

[pauby]

I'm not really sure I understand this one so forgive me if I've missed something.

This folder does not appear, because in runtime the folder will be expanded with value of environment variable MyVar instead of verbatim %MyVar%.

This won't happen. %MyVar% is not a PowerShell variable. $env:MyVar is. So if you pass %MyVar% to the code it will interpret it literally as it's supposed to do.

Why can't you use $env:MyVar?

[FranklinYu]

@pauby I exactly don't want it to understand. I want %MyVar% to be in the shortcut verbatim. So if you check the property of generated link, it shows exactly %MyVar% (yes, this 7 characters) in the Working Directory field.

And again, the shortcut is good. It is generated as I expected. I just want to correct the behavior of folder-creation.

[ferventcoder]

@pauby This is what gets saved verbatim in the shortcut link, then Windows expands it when you access the .lnk file. It can't be a PowerShell variable because it uses cmd.exe to run.

[FranklinYu]

@ferventcoder “Up For Grabs”? I thought we already have #1686?

[ferventcoder]

This will be released with 0.10.12.

[ferventcoder]

“Up For Grabs”? I thought we already have #1686?

@FranklinYu yes we do, the up for grabs label is what we add for community contributions whether or not there was an existing PR. Something you can ignore, it's not something we later remove. 👍