Launching pwsh.exe without a console (DETACHED_PROCESS) results in quiet startup failure #28383

Prerequisites

• Write a descriptive title.
• Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
• Search the existing issues.
• Refer to the FAQ.
• Refer to Differences between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell.

Steps to reproduce

Launching a process with the DETACHED_PROCESS flag of the WinAPI CreateProcess() function by design does so without a console, even for console-subsystem applications.

However, pwsh.exe assumes the presence of a console and quietly aborts if it cannot find one: exit code 0 is reported, and no WER (Windows Error Reporting) event is recorded in the Windows Application event log.

Note:

• SCM, the Windows Service Control Manager, is an example of a component that starts (service) executables with DETACHED_PROCESS; while using pwsh.exe as a service executable is not a common use case, it is possible to implement a service via a .ps1 script passed to pwsh.exe -File - see this Stack Overflow post.

• There are two ways to fix this problem:

  • Report a nonzero exit code and log a WER event with a specific error message - this is what the repro below assumes.

  • Alternatively, allow PowerShell to run without a console: infer non-interactive mode in the absence of a console and prevent attempts to access console-specific features in a controlled manner (note that the -noninteractive CLI option does not currently do that).

• The following repro code requires .NET 11+ / at least a PowerShell 7.7 preview version, due to use of the new .StartDetached property of ProcessStartInfo.

using namespace System.Diagnostics

$startTime = [System.DateTime]::Now

# Start PowerShell without a console (DETACHED_PROCESS)
# Note: Requires .NET 11+
[Process]::Start(
  [ProcessStartInfo] @{
    FileName = 'pwsh.exe'
    Arguments = '-c "Start-Sleep 5"'
    StartDetached = $true
  }
) | Wait-Process -PassThru | Select-Object *Exit*

"Ran for $('{0:N1}' -f ([datetime]::Now - $startTime).TotalSeconds) secs." | Out-Host

# # As a crosscheck, use the following to provoke a crash that DOES create a WER event.
# $ps = Start-Process -PassThru conhost.exe (Get-Process -Id $PID).Path; Start-Sleep 2; $ps | Stop-Process

"Sleeping a little, to give a WER event time to show up" | Out-Host
1..5 | ForEach-Object { Write-Host -NoNewline .; Start-Sleep 1 }
Write-Host

# Report the resulting WER event, if any.
Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable @{
  ProviderName = 'Windows Error Reporting'
  Id           = 1001
  Data = 'pwsh.exe' # matches the <Data Name="P1"> sub-element of <EventData>
  StartTime    = $startTime # events written since this [datetime] instance; supplemnt with `EndTime`, if needed
} | Format-List

The offending parts of the source code:

• PowerShell/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost/host/msh/ConsoleControl.cs

  Lines 548 to 571 in 2725d6a

  	private static readonly Lazy<ConsoleHandle> _outputHandle = new Lazy<SafeFileHandle>(() =>
  	{
  	// We use CreateFile here instead of GetStdWin32Handle, as GetStdWin32Handle will return redirected handles
  	var handle = NativeMethods.CreateFile(
  	"CONOUT$",
  	(UInt32)(NativeMethods.AccessQualifiers.GenericRead | NativeMethods.AccessQualifiers.GenericWrite),
  	(UInt32)NativeMethods.ShareModes.ShareWrite,
  	(IntPtr)0,
  	(UInt32)NativeMethods.CreationDisposition.OpenExisting,
  	0,
  	(IntPtr)0);
  	if (handle == NativeMethods.INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
  	{
  	int err = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
  	HostException e = CreateHostException(err, "RetreiveActiveScreenBufferConsoleHandle",
  	ErrorCategory.ResourceUnavailable, ConsoleControlStrings.GetActiveScreenBufferHandleExceptionTemplate);
  	throw e;
  	}
  	return new ConsoleHandle(handle, true);
  	}
  	);

• PowerShell/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost/host/msh/ManagedEntrance.cs

  Lines 105 to 111 in 2725d6a

  	// These exceptions are caused by killing conhost.exe
  	// 1236, network connection aborted by local system
  	// 0x6, invalid console handle
  	if (win32e.NativeErrorCode == 0x6 || win32e.NativeErrorCode == 1236)
  	{
  	return exitCode;
  	}

Expected behavior

Ran for 10.0 secs.
.....
ExitCode HasExited ExitTime
-------- --------- --------
       1      True <timestamp>
<tabular display of a WER event-log entry with a specific error message>

Actual behavior

Ran for 0.3 secs.
.....
ExitCode HasExited ExitTime
-------- --------- --------
       0      True <timestamp>
Get-WinEvent: foo.ps1:25
Line |
  25 |  Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable @{
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | No events were found that match the specified selection criteria.

That is:

• the Start-Sleep command passed to -c never got to execute
• the exit code was unexpectedly 0
• no WER event was logged.

Error details

Environment data

PowerShell Core v7.7.0-preview.5 on Windows

Visuals

No response