microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

Support other portable application formats

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#5,083 2 comments 29 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

WinGet has support for portable applications when they are "executables" as in *.exe.

Other formats have been suggested like:

  • *.bat
  • *.com
  • *.jar

Current WinGet Community repository policies prohibit .bat and .com, but these could be offered in private enterprise repositories.

The Java archive format .jar requires a JRE to be present on the system, and that comes with challenges associated with dependencies.

This "parent" issue will be linked to by labels in the WinGet Community Repository when portable packages using other formats are submitted.

Proposed technical implementation details

No response

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by reviewing how WinGet currently recognizes portable executables and the repository policies for portable packages, then determine the required behavior for .bat, .com, and .jar formats, including the JRE dependency concern. Done would require an agreed technical design and corresponding support and validation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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