[aws-ec2] shellCommand Windows

[sd3z]

When using the latest Windows AMI and using shellcommand the commands fail to run with 'The system cannot find the file specified'.

Reproduction Steps

ec2.InitCommand.argvCommand(['powershell.exe',` '-command "Set-ExecutionPolicy', 'RemoteSigned -Force"'], { key: "00_executionPolicy", waitAfterCompletion: ec2.InitCommandWaitDuration.none() }),

What did you expect to happen?

The command to run successfully

What actually happened?

The error reported was

----- Error during cfn-init bootstrapping -----
ERROR] Unhandled exception during build: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "cfn-init", line 171, in <module>
  File "cfnbootstrap\construction.pyc", line 129, in build
  File "cfnbootstrap\construction.pyc", line 530, in build
  File "cfnbootstrap\construction.pyc", line 544, in run_config
  File "cfnbootstrap\construction.pyc", line 138, in run_commands
  File "cfnbootstrap\command_tool.pyc", line 108, in apply
  File "cfnbootstrap\util.pyc", line 497, in call
  File "cfnbootstrap\util.pyc", line 482, in call
  File "subprocess.pyc", line 710, in __init__
  File "subprocess.pyc", line 958, in _execute_child
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Environment

• CLI Version : 1.66
• Framework Version: 1.66
• Node.js Version: 10.x
• OS : Windows 10
• Language (Version): Typescript 4.0.2

Other

I believe the issue is related to shell command outputting to a array with a single element. According to the documentation here if an array is specified every command and parameter needs to be a new element (no whitespace) but if it is a string (as I think shellCommand prefers), it just needs to be a string, so

This will work

commands:
  00_executionPolicy:
    command: powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force
    waitAfterCompletion: 0

This will work

commands:
  00_executionPolicy:
    command:
      - powershell.exe
      - -command
      - Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force
    waitAfterCompletion: 0

This will NOT work

commands:
  00_executionPolicy:
    command:
      - powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"
    waitAfterCompletion: 0

---

This is 🐛 Bug Report

[rix0rrr]

I don't understand how the example you gave:

// (A)
ec2.InitCommand.argvCommand(['powershell.exe',` '-command "Set-ExecutionPolicy', 'RemoteSigned -Force"'], { key: "00_executionPolicy", waitAfterCompletion: ec2.InitCommandWaitDuration.none() }),

Would lead to this being rendered:

// (B)
    command:
      - powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"

If anything, it should lead to this being rendered:

// (C)
    command:
      - powershell.exe 
      - -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy
      - RemoteSigned -Force"

And by the way, judging from the quotes I think you probably meant to do this:

ec2.InitCommand.argvCommand([
  'powershell.exe',
  '-command',
  'Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force'
]);

I agree with you there's a bug in the implementation of shellCommand though.

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[sd3z]

Oh sorry, you are right on the quotes being a little off.

So to iterate the issue is purely around shellCommand, specifically when I do this

ec2.InitCommand.shellCommand('powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"', { key: "00_executionPolicy", waitAfterCompletion: ec2.InitCommandWaitDuration.none() }),

i get this

    command:
      - powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"

but it should be

    command: powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"

because within the cfn-init scripts, the "subprocess" Python library is used to invoke commands on the Windows command prompt. When a list of strings is specified in the "command" section, the underlying library attempts to run the entire string specified as a single command with no arguments. This will cause Windows to return an error since it attempts to search for a program with the name of 'powershell.exe -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force"' as opposed to just 'powershell.exe'.

I think argvCommand is good for Windows if it renders to a string too and not string[] with a single element as the same above was happening.