Error "The Directory/@Name attribute's value is not a relative path" when running wix4 in Linux Ubuntu

[pablochacin]

Bugs

If this issue is a bug:

• Which version of WiX are you building with?

4.0.0-rc.1+6580fe7b

• Which version of Visual Studio are you building with (if any)?

N/A

• Which version of the WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension are you building with (if any)?

N/A

• Which version of .NET are you building with?

7.0.2

• If the problem occurs when installing your packages built with WiX, what is the version of Windows the package is running on?

N/A

• Describe the problem and the steps to reproduce it.

When testing on a Linux environment (Ubuntu 22.04) a get the error ""The Directory/@name attribute's value is not a relative path" for every "Directory" element.

To reproduce the error in Ubuntu

Install dotnet in Linux

sudo apt install -y dotnet-core-7.0 dotnet-sdk-7.0

Install wix4

dotnet tool install --global wix --version 4.0.0-rc.1 

Download this test .wsx file from the wix4 project

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wixtoolset/wix4/develop/src/test/msi/TestData/Templates/Product.wxs

Try building the .wsx file

wix build -d PackageName=mypackage -d TestGroupName=mytest -d UpgradeCode=$(uuidgen) Product.wxs

/tmp/wix4/Product.wxs(32) : error WIX0389: The Directory/@Name attribute's value, '~Test WiX', is not a relative path.
/tmp/wix4/Product.wxs(33) : error WIX0389: The Directory/@Name attribute's value, 'mytest', is not a relative path.
/tmp/wix4/Product.wxs(34) : error WIX0389: The Directory/@Name attribute's value, 'mypackage', is not a relative path.

• Describe the behavior you expected and how it differed from the actual behavior.

Wix4 is a dotnet application. I would expect it to work in Linux environment.

[robmen]

Wix4 is a dotnet application. I would expect it to work in Linux environment.

This expectation is incorrect. WiX depends on Windows APIs that are not abstracted by .NET on other operating systems. Therefore, it is necessary to re-implement several APIs for other platforms. We did restructure WiX v4 to (hopefully) make that easier to execute but no one stepped up to complete the work.

Until that work is completed, there is no expectation that WiX will run on Linux (or Mac).

[pablochacin]

Therefore, it is necessary to re-implement several APIs for other platforms.
Until that work is completed, there is no expectation that WiX will run on Linux (or Mac).

Thanks for the quick reply. Is there any place to start looking at which APIs are those?

[robmen]

It isn't as clean as it should be, but you'll want to look at:

1. WixToolset.Core.Native - https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix4/tree/develop/src/wix/WixToolset.Core.Native
2. All P/Invoke in https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix4/tree/develop/src/wix that wasn't migrated to WixToolset.Core.Native
3. Any references from https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix4/tree/develop/src/wix to WixToolset.Dtf.*

If this project was to be undertaken in earnest, the PInvoke in 2 and 3 (and any I've missed) should be evaluated for better abstraction.

[robmen]

Duplicate of #4381