Fix install script swallowing file-lock errors and reporting false success by Copilot · Pull Request #15419 · microsoft/aspire

Copilot · 2026-03-20T00:33:57Z

When CLI installation hits a filesystem error, especially a locked aspire.exe on Windows, parts of the PowerShell install flow were relying on commands that emit non-terminating errors. That allowed the script to continue after a failed backup or extraction step and still print the success message.

Changes

Applies to eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1 and eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1.

Harden install/update filesystem operations by adding -ErrorAction Stop where failure should abort the operation.
Update Backup-ExistingCliExecutable to remove stale *.old.* backups before creating a new backup, matching self-update behavior.
Wrap the backup Move-Item in try/catch and throw a clearer, actionable error when the existing CLI cannot be moved because it is in use.
Make Expand-Archive failures terminating so the existing restore/error path runs instead of falling through to the success message.
In get-aspire-cli.ps1, check $LASTEXITCODE after tar extraction so Unix extraction failures are surfaced correctly.
Capture tar stdout/stderr and include it in the thrown extraction error when tar exits non-zero.
Preserve the original unpack error if restore from backup also fails, so rollback problems do not mask the root cause.
Only clean up old backup files after the target executable exists.

Result

If the installer cannot replace the existing CLI, or if extraction/rollback fails, it now fails with clear actionable errors instead of reporting a successful install.

Checklist

Is this feature complete?
- Yes. Ready to ship.
- No. Follow-up changes expected.
Are you including unit tests for the changes and scenario tests if relevant?
- Yes
- No
Did you add public API?
- Yes
  - If yes, did you have an API Review for it?
    - Yes
    - No
  - Did you add <remarks /> and <code /> elements on your triple slash comments?
    - Yes
    - No
- No
Does the change make any security assumptions or guarantees?
- Yes
  - If yes, have you done a threat model and had a security review?
    - Yes
    - No
- No
Does the change require an update in our Aspire docs?
- Yes
  - Link to aspire.dev issue:
    - New issue
- No

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>aspire install ps1 shows error message but then reports it succeeded when it didn't</issue_title>
<issue_description>On Windows, I had the staging channel of the CLI already installed.

Then I ran irm https://aspire.dev/install.ps1 | iex to install latest stable and this is what I saw:
➜ irm https://aspire.dev/install.ps1 | iex
Downloading aspire-cli-win-x64.zip from 'ga/daily'
Move-Item:
Line |
 636 |              Move-Item -Path $TargetExePath -Destination $backupPath - …
     |              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
Remove-Item: The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\dedward\.aspire\bin\aspire.exe' because it is being used by another process.
Aspire CLI successfully installed to: C:\Users\dedward\.aspire\bin\aspire.exe

The aspire cli is now available for use in this and new sessions.
It seems it failed to perform the logical rename of the downloaded file because the existing aspire.exe was locked by another process. Oddly I couldn't find any instances of aspire.exe already running?

A few issues here:

The exception is uncaught and bubbles up as a raw error to the end user

The script continues and renders the success message

The install didn't actually succeed as I still have the staging version (13.2 in this case) installed

</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Improve error handling so we correctly when the files cannot be moved to the target location. Also, look for other missing or ignored error handling.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes aspire install ps1 shows error message but then reports it succeeded when it didn't #15418

… success messages When aspire.exe was locked by another process, Move-Item in Backup-ExistingCliExecutable failed as a non-terminating error and execution continued, causing Expand-Archive to also fail silently and the success message to be displayed regardless. - Wrap Move-Item in Backup-ExistingCliExecutable with try/catch + -ErrorAction Stop in both get-aspire-cli.ps1 and get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1, throwing a clear actionable message when the backup fails - Add -ErrorAction Stop to Expand-Archive in both scripts so extraction failures are caught by the existing catch block - Add exit-code check for tar in get-aspire-cli.ps1 (pr variant already had it) Co-authored-by: radical <1472+radical@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions · 2026-03-20T01:57:46Z

🚀 Dogfood this PR with:

⚠️ WARNING: Do not do this without first carefully reviewing the code of this PR to satisfy yourself it is safe.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.sh | bash -s -- 15419

Or

Run remotely in PowerShell:

iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1) } 15419"

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Improves robustness of the Aspire CLI install PowerShell scripts by converting previously non-terminating file operation failures (notably when aspire.exe is locked) into terminating errors that are properly caught and reported, preventing false “success” output.

Changes:

Make backup/restore of existing CLI executable fail fast (-ErrorAction Stop) and surface an actionable error when backup can’t be created.
Ensure archive extraction failures are terminating (Expand-Archive -ErrorAction Stop) so the existing try/catch logic runs (including backup restore).
Add Unix tar exit-code validation in get-aspire-cli.ps1 (PR variant already had this behavior).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1	Harden backup/restore + extraction paths to avoid swallowed errors and false success; add `tar` exit-code check.
eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1	Align PR installer with the same backup/restore + extraction error handling improvements.

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1

github-actions · 2026-03-20T04:48:56Z

Re-running the failed jobs in the CI workflow for this pull request because 1 job was identified as retry-safe transient failures in the CI run attempt.
GitHub was asked to rerun all failed jobs for that attempt, and the rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.
The job links below point to the failed attempt jobs that matched the retry-safe transient failure rules.

Tests / Hosting-1 / Hosting-1 (windows-latest) - Job-level runner or infrastructure failure matched the transient allowlist.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

…stall-error-message

…install-error-message' into copilot/fix-aspire-install-error-message

github-actions · 2026-03-23T02:51:14Z

Re-running the failed jobs in the CI workflow for this pull request because 1 job was identified as retry-safe transient failures in the CI run attempt.
GitHub was asked to rerun all failed jobs for that attempt, and the rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.
The job links below point to the failed attempt jobs that matched the retry-safe transient failure rules.

Tests / Hosting.Kubernetes / Hosting.Kubernetes (windows-latest) - Post-test cleanup steps 'Upload logs, and test results | Copy CLI E2E recordings for upload | Upload CLI E2E recordings | Generate test results summary | Post Checkout code' matched the Windows process initialization failure override allowlist.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions · 2026-03-24T17:17:17Z

🎬 CLI E2E Test Recordings — 49 recordings uploaded (commit 29134fc)

View recordings

Test	Recording
AddPackageInteractiveWhileAppHostRunningDetached	▶️ View Recording
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AgentCommands_AllHelpOutputs_AreCorrect	▶️ View Recording
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AspireAddPackageVersionToDirectoryPackagesProps	▶️ View Recording
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InvalidAppHostPathWithComments_IsHealedOnRun	▶️ View Recording
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StopAllAppHostsFromUnrelatedDirectory	▶️ View Recording
StopNonInteractiveMultipleAppHostsShowsError	▶️ View Recording
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StopWithNoRunningAppHostExitsSuccessfully	▶️ View Recording
TypeScriptAppHostWithProjectReferenceIntegration	▶️ View Recording

_{📹 Recordings uploaded automatically from CI run #23501668867}

Initial plan

7362786

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and radical Mar 20, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of radical March 20, 2026 00:34 View session

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Fix erroneous success message in aspire install ps1~~ Fix install script swallowing file-lock errors and reporting false success Mar 20, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from radical March 20, 2026 01:00

Copilot finished work on behalf of radical March 20, 2026 01:56

Fix installer PowerShell error handling

5f99dc6

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

radical marked this pull request as ready for review March 20, 2026 03:42

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 20, 2026 03:42

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of radical March 20, 2026 03:43 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1 Show resolved Hide resolved

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1 Show resolved Hide resolved

radical marked this pull request as draft March 20, 2026 03:51

Handle installer cleanup errors

1830f02

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

radical requested a review from Copilot March 20, 2026 03:53

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of radical March 20, 2026 03:56 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1 Show resolved Hide resolved

eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli.ps1 Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

radical and others added 3 commits March 20, 2026 14:54

Align PowerShell installer backup semantics

c2efe75

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into copilot/fix-aspire-in…

8056486

…stall-error-message

Merge remote-tracking branch 'refs/remotes/origin/copilot/fix-aspire-…

3518336

…install-error-message' into copilot/fix-aspire-install-error-message

radical marked this pull request as ready for review March 23, 2026 20:52

radical and others added 2 commits March 24, 2026 12:45

Include tar diagnostics in install errors

04e1a26

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Preserve unpack errors during restore

29134fc

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

radical requested review from DamianEdwards, davidfowl and joperezr March 24, 2026 16:54

radical enabled auto-merge (squash) March 24, 2026 18:30

radical requested a review from eerhardt March 24, 2026 19:24

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Fix install script swallowing file-lock errors and reporting false success#15419

Fix install script swallowing file-lock errors and reporting false success#15419
Copilot wants to merge 9 commits intomainfrom
copilot/fix-aspire-install-error-message

Copilot AI commented Mar 20, 2026 •

edited by radical

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Copilot AI commented Mar 20, 2026 •

edited by radical

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