explorer.exe always return 1 regardless the result

[patrick330602]

Environment

Windows build number: 21313
Your Distribution version: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS/Ubuntu Hirsute Hippo (Development Branch)
Whether the issue is on WSL 2 and/or WSL 1: WSL1/WSL2

Steps to reproduce

type explorer.exe https://github.com.

WSL logs:

Click to expand

execve("/mnt/c/WINDOWS/explorer.exe", ["explorer.exe", "https://google.com"], 0x7ffc177fbc68 /* 32 vars */) = 0
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x34fb90)       = 0
set_tid_address(0x34fbc8)               = 27638
brk(NULL)                               = 0x1773000
brk(0x1774000)                          = 0x1774000
gettid()                                = 27638
gettid()                                = 27638
gettid()                                = 27638
gettid()                                = 27638
sched_getaffinity(0, 128, [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]) = 32
brk(0x1775000)                          = 0x1775000
getpid()                                = 27638
getcwd("/home/patrick/wslu", 4096)      = 19
uname({sysname="Linux", nodename="PkWnMcBk", ...}) = 0
getcwd("/home/patrick/wslu", 4096)      = 19
open("/mnt/c/WINDOWS/explorer.exe", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_PATH) = 3
readlink("/proc/self/fd/3", "/mnt/c/WINDOWS/explorer.exe", 4095) = 27
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0544, st_size=5136424, ...}) = 0
stat("/mnt/c/WINDOWS/explorer.exe", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0544, st_size=5136424, ...}) = 0
close(3)                                = 0
open("/proc/self/mountinfo", O_RDONLY)  = 3
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="39 27 8:16 / / rw,relatime - ext"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="tmpfs rw,mode=755\n52 51 0:31 / /"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="elatime - cgroup cgroup rw,net_p"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="a;uid=1000;gid=1000;umask=0022;f"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 112
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="", iov_len=1024}], 2) = 0
close(3)                                = 0
getcwd("/home/patrick/wslu", 4096)      = 19
open("/proc/self/mountinfo", O_RDONLY)  = 3
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="39 27 8:16 / / rw,relatime - ext"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="tmpfs rw,mode=755\n52 51 0:31 / /"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="elatime - cgroup cgroup rw,net_p"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 1024
brk(0x1776000)                          = 0x1776000
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="a;uid=1000;gid=1000;umask=0022;f"..., iov_len=1024}], 2) = 112
readv(3, [{iov_base="", iov_len=0}, {iov_base="", iov_len=1024}], 2) = 0
close(3)                                = 0
ioctl(0, TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(1, TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(2, TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(0, TIOCGPGRP, [27635])            = 0
getpgid(0)                              = 27635
fstat(0, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(0x88, 0), ...}) = 0
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(0x88, 0), ...}) = 0
fstat(2, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(0x88, 0), ...}) = 0
ioctl(0, TIOCGWINSZ, {ws_row=30, ws_col=120, ws_xpixel=0, ws_ypixel=0}) = 0
ioctl(0, SNDCTL_TMR_START or TCSETS, {B38400 -opost -isig -icanon -echo ...}) = 0
                                                                                 dup(0)
 = 3
    socket(AF_VSOCK, SOCK_STREAM|SOCK_CLOEXEC, 0) = 4
                                                     bind(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0"}, 16) = 0
                          getsockname(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\336\255nX\377\377\377\377\0\0\0\0"}, [16]) = 0
  listen(4, 4)                            = 0
                                             socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_SEQPACKET|SOCK_CLOEXEC, 0) = 5
                                                                                                connect(5, {sa_family=AF_UNIX, sun_path="/run/WSL/10_interop"}, 110) = 0
                                                write(5, "\6\0\0\0007\1\0\0\336\255nX\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 311) = 311
                     poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 1, 10000) = 1 ([{fd=4, revents=POLLIN}])
                                                                                           accept4(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\313\214\2\216\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"}, [16], SOCK_CLOEXEC) = 6
                                                                         poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 1, 10000) = 1 ([{fd=4, revents=POLLIN}])
                       accept4(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\314\214\2\216\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"}, [16], SOCK_CLOEXEC) = 7
     poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 1, 10000) = 1 ([{fd=4, revents=POLLIN}])
                                                                           accept4(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\315\214\2\216\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"}, [16], SOCK_CLOEXEC) = 8
                                                         poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 1, 10000) = 1 ([{fd=4, revents=POLLIN}])
       accept4(4, {sa_family=AF_VSOCK, sa_data="\0\0\316\214\2\216\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"}, [16], SOCK_CLOEXEC) = 9
                                                                                                             close(4)                                = 0
                                rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [INT WINCH], NULL, 8) = 0
                                                                                   signalfd4(-1, [INT WINCH], 8, 0)        = 4
      poll([{fd=0, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 5, -1) = 1 ([{fd=9, revents=POLLIN}])
                                             recvfrom(9, "\t\0\0\0 \0\0\0", 8, MSG_WAITALL, NULL, NULL) = 8
                                                                                                           recvfrom(9, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 24, 0, NULL, NULL) = 24
                                                                          ioctl(3, SNDCTL_TMR_START or TCSETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
close(3)                                = 0
poll([{fd=0, events=POLLIN}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}, {fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 5, -1) = 1 ([{fd=9, revents=POLLIN}])
recvfrom(9, "\7\0\0\0\f\0\0\0", 8, MSG_WAITALL, NULL, NULL) = 8
recvfrom(9, "\1\0\0\0", 4, 0, NULL, NULL) = 4
shutdown(6, SHUT_WR)                    = 0
poll([{fd=-1}, {fd=7, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}, {fd=-1}, {fd=-1}], 5, -1) = 2 ([{fd=7, revents=POLLIN}, {fd=8, revents=POLLIN}])
read(7, "", 4096)                       = 0
read(8, "", 4096)                       = 0
shutdown(6, SHUT_WR)                    = 0
close(4)                                = 0
close(5)                                = 0
close(9)                                = 0
close(8)                                = 0
close(7)                                = 0
close(6)                                = 0
exit_group(1)                           = ?
+++ exited with 1 +++

Expected behavior

The process exits with 0 and opens the GitHub website.

Actual behavior

The process exits with 1 and opens the GitHub website.

[therealkenc]

Thanks for the strace log; appreciated. Was able to reproduce here. The exit code of 1 appears to be confined to Windows apps. Console apps which succeed return 0.

It is probably better to launch Windows apps is via PowerShell. That explorer.exe app hasn't exited and doesn't have an exit code. But regardless, interop shouldn't be presenting a nonzero exit code unless (say) the path wasn't found or similar.

[DHowett]

Curious- what do you get if you run explorer from cmd (without WSL being in the picture at all) and then check %ERRORLEVEL%?

[therealkenc]

%ERRORLEVEL% is not affected by explorer.exe. The variable is left as its previous value.

[martin-braun]

The most simplest things to expect don't work as they should. Better invest more into AI, who cares about the exit code of explorer.exe ...