[PATCH v4 0/1] MR8794: shell32: Restore the ability of running unix executables via unix paths

[Yuxuan Shui (＠yshui)]

MobaXTerm tries to ShellExecute "/bin/sh" when running under wine. This ability
to run unix executables on the host via unix paths was accidentally removed
in the attemp to align ShellExecute more closely with native, while fixing the
problem that sometimes wrong executable is started by ShellExecute (e.g. in
Motor Race Collection).

Related: a2548c8db3096963012939c82e340f6b867f3efd
Fixes: 85d029e3b01f6dd35a86cc07796af982d66e4a03

--
  v4: shell32: Restore the ability of running unix executables via unix paths

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/merge_requests/8794

[PATCH v4 1/1] shell32: Restore the ability of running unix executables via unix paths

[Yuxuan Shui]

From: Yuxuan Shui

MobaXTerm tries to ShellExecute "/bin/sh" when running under wine. This ability
to run unix executables on the host via unix paths was accidentally removed
in the attemp to align ShellExecute more closely with native, while fixing the
problem that sometimes wrong executable is started by ShellExecute (e.g. in
Motor Race Collection).

Related: a2548c8db3096963012939c82e340f6b867f3efd
Fixes: 85d029e3b01f6dd35a86cc07796af982d66e4a03
---
 dlls/shell32/shlexec.c | 20 +++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/dlls/shell32/shlexec.c b/dlls/shell32/shlexec.c
index d2a6d5700d4..3a1dc2d1759 100644
--- a/dlls/shell32/shlexec.c
+++ b/dlls/shell32/shlexec.c
@@ -1934,16 +1934,26 @@ static BOOL SHELL_execute( LPSHELLEXECUTEINFOW sei, SHELL_ExecuteW32 execfunc )
         lstrcatW(lpstrTmpFile, lpFile);
         retval = (UINT_PTR)ShellExecuteW(sei_tmp.hwnd, sei_tmp.lpVerb, lpstrTmpFile, NULL, NULL, 0);
     }
-    else if (retval == SE_ERR_NOASSOC && SHGetFileInfoW(wcmd, 0, NULL, 0, SHGFI_EXETYPE) == 0)
+    else if ((retval == SE_ERR_NOASSOC && SHGetFileInfoW(wcmd, 0, NULL, 0, SHGFI_EXETYPE) == 0) ||
+             (retval == SE_ERR_FNF && wszApplicationName[0] == '/'))
     {
-        /* File found, but no association. And no other cases fit, this could be a
+        /* Two cases:
+
+           1. File found, but no association. And no other cases fit, this could be a
            unix programs, try running it. We have to do this in a "catch-all" fashion because
            unix program can have any extensions. However, things get more complicated because
            the file we find could be a Windows executable without the proper extensions, it could
-           be seen as unexpected if we start it, so we special case it here. */
+           be seen as unexpected if we start it, so we special case it here.
+
+           2. File not found. Still, this could be a unix path. In this case we don't worry if
+           we accidentally start a Windows executable, so we just try to run it anyway, hoping it's
+           a valid unix path to a executable. Also `wcmd` will be empty in this case, so we use
+           `wszApplicationName`.
+         */
         UINT exec_retval;
-        TRACE("No association found, trying as Unix binary %s\n", debugstr_w(wcmd));
-        exec_retval = SHELL_quote_and_execute( wcmd, wszParameters, wszKeyname,
+        WCHAR *unix_cmd = retval == SE_ERR_NOASSOC ? wcmd : wszApplicationName;
+        TRACE("SHELL_FindExecutable failed, trying as Unix binary %s\n", debugstr_w(unix_cmd));
+        exec_retval = SHELL_quote_and_execute( unix_cmd, wszParameters, wszKeyname,
                                                wszApplicationName, env, &sei_tmp,
                                                sei, execfunc );
         TRACE("Unix binary returned %u\n", exec_retval);

[Yuxuan Shui (＠yshui)]

@julliard hello, @huw was telling me he's not sure if we should keep this compatibility support. and i think he might be contacting devs of MobaXTerm to understand what they are actually doing?

[Huw Davies (＠huw)]

On Mon Sep  8 06:38:13 2025 +0000, Yuxuan Shui wrote:
> @julliard hello, @huw was telling me he's not sure if we should keep
> this compatibility support. and i think he might be contacting devs of
> MobaXTerm to understand what they are actually doing?

Yeah, I'm not sure whether we actually want this hack back.  Having this gone doesn't seem to have broken anything else.