sbtx --client always returns exitcode=0

[steinybot]

Initially reported as sbt/sbt#6196 but it is not a problem in the latest official sbt script. It is a problem in the latest sbt-extras script.

❯ ./sbtx --client boom
[info] entering *experimental* thin client - BEEP WHIRR
[info] terminate the server with `shutdown`
> boom
[error] stack trace is suppressed; run last boom for the full output
[error] (boom) Kaboom!
[error] Total time: 0 s, completed 25/03/2021, 8:10:28 AM

❯ echo $?
0

sbt-extras is used by https://github.com/olafurpg/setup-scala and subsequently https://github.com/djspiewak/sbt-github-actions and so is a problem causing false positive builds when trying to use sbt's native thin client.

[dwijnand]

So, if I understand correctly --client runs the old, java-based, client. So I guess the error is that that doesn't correctly handle failing commands/tasks returning non-zero? sbt-extras just invokes java with the sbt launcher (you can see and run exactly what it runs by adding a -v) so I'm not sure how this can be a runner issue.

[steinybot]

My understanding was that it was the other way around. sbt --client is equivalent to running sbtn. I haven't dug into it but the log messages saying entering *experimental* thin client - BEEP WHIRR supports that theory.

[dwijnand]

"entering experimental thin client" is definitely the old one, the one that shipped in sbt 1.2 (sbt/sbt#4227).

[paulp]

Lol at BEEP WHIRR which is presumably a descendant of

Welcome to Scala version 2.11.3 (OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, Java 1.8.0_144).
Type in expressions to have them evaluated.
Type :help for more information.

scala> :power
** Power User mode enabled - BEEP WHIR GYVE **
** :phase has been set to 'typer'.          **
** scala.tools.nsc._ has been imported      **
** global._, definitions._ also imported    **
** Try  :help, :vals, power.<tab>           **

[steinybot]

Ah ok well you know better than me then. All I know is that it works with sbt and doesn't work with sbtx.

[steinybot]

The sbt docs seem to say that sbt --client will use the native client but only when using the official launcher not the "knockoff kind" (shots fired! 🤣).

Regardless, do you not consider this a bug in sbtx if it works fine in the official launcher? Surely it is.

[dwijnand]

I guess I'm talking about one thing and (rightly) you're talking about another: sbt-extras (what I was talking about) is doing java -jar sbt-launcher.jar --client boom and that's the original java client and it doesn't report the right exit code. My guess is the sbt-launcher-package fork of sbt-extras (🚀) is special-casing --client to run the native client, instead.

Effectively there's no way to download and run the native client with sbt-extras (unless I'm forgetting anything) and, indeed, for the occasional use of it I have, I run sbtn which is in the sbt homebrew package.

One thing that I don't know is what kind of guarantees there are between this new client and sbt itself: are old clients going to work with new servers, or is it a strict new-client + new-server stepwise upgrade? I think we'll understand that better with sbt's next minor version bump.

I'm happy to do review some PRs for sbtn support (see also #288) but I don't need it badly enough to look into it right now.

[steinybot]

Ah right, thanks for the background 😃.