Historical record

This page records what happened on a date, with its observed failures and limits. It is not a requirement for the current implementation. Current behaviour is in Status.

0.5.2 on Windows

Updated 2026-11-02. The user moved to a Windows machine and asked for Windows to be completed. The 0.5.2 candidate served macOS arm64 and Linux x64/arm64 (platforms episode). Its Core commit, c3dbeca, carries Core's Windows port, which had only been type-checked for x86_64-pc-windows-gnu. This episode builds and tests that Core with MSVC, makes Rho and the Plugins run on Windows, packs a Windows candidate and installs it on this machine: Windows 11 x64 (10.0.26200), Node 22.23.4, R 4.5.1, Python 3.13.9 and Chrome.

Core

c3dbeca passes format, Clippy, 79 regressions and the example with MSVC Build Tools 2022 and Rust 1.97.0. The two Unix-only regressions are excluded. The checkout had LF line endings and CARGO_PROFILE_DEV_DEBUG=0, as for the other platforms' Cores. The Windows Core is 4,614,144 bytes, SHA-256 ce5acef1564cf7056a151c38582012e68cde0c60df8b91576567030e09d4d77a. Core's library and binary are unchanged. Core 6f83226 corrects only the Windows test fixtures, which logged the pid of a cat instead of their own shell, and records the findings below (CORE-20261101-02).

A Host given Ctrl+Break ends at once (0xC000013A) without its shutdown report. Its console handler returns 0, so Windows' default handler ends the process. Started on a console without a window, it does not react to Ctrl+C. Only RHO_CORE_STOP_FILE, which Core's documentation calls a test aid, stops it in order. Rho now relies on it. Core decides whether to make it a documented interface or to have the handler return 1. The latter changes the binary, so every platform's Core would be rebuilt.

A Host serves one named-pipe instance at a time and makes the next one only after it takes a connection. Until then, another client finds the pipe busy, and Core reports the call as not delivered (exit 3), with nothing done. The wait grows when the machine is busy. With every processor busy, 8 of 200 concurrent capability calls were not delivered.

Rho

The Host outlives the service. Node on Windows puts the processes it starts in a job that ends them when Node ends. A Host started directly died with Rho, and its runs went on unheld. cmd.exe now starts the Host and waits for it. What cmd starts is outside the job, so the Host outlives Rho as a detached Host does elsewhere. Each argument reaches cmd as a variable inside quotes, where neither cmd's expansion nor & ^ ( ) apply. A project folder named a & b ^ %OS% !OS! (1) 中文 🧬 reached the Host unchanged, R ran in it, and no window opened for cmd, the Host or R. Detached instead, the Host would have no console, and every run it started would open a window.

It stops with its report. Rho starts its Host with a stop file and creates the file on close. The Host reports "signal": 15 and its runs, and Rho counts the report as confirmed. After a crash, a restarted Rho finds the surviving Host among Core's pipes by the project its capability names. Another program stops Rho with Ctrl+Break on Rho's console (SIGBREAK), which the launcher now handles like SIGINT. Before, Rho ended at once (0xC000013A) and left its Host running.

Calls that find the Host busy are tried again. Core's contract for exit 3 is to try again. A call on a pipe is tried up to five times, 20 to 80 ms apart, unless the CLI could not start. With every processor busy, the same 200 calls were then all delivered. A full suite run had failed before-cli this way. Retrying a CLI that could not start at all slowed every pipe probe. That made one run fail the browser test with a one-second session, and that case is excluded now.

Other paths. The service's writer lock is a file opened without sharing. The system releases it when the service ends, so Windows needs no Python for it. Executables are found with .exe. Directory flushes, which Windows refuses (EPERM), are skipped; NTFS journals the rename. Open folder shows Windows' own folder window through PowerShell, above the browser, and returns a Unicode path. Agent-reported Windows paths (C:\…, c:/…, Git Bash's /c/…) name project files. --open opened Edge with the URL's fragment intact. The packer runs npm's CLI under Node, since npm.cmd needs a shell. The recovery acceptance ends its R process tree.

Plugins

Notebook 0.5.2, Console 0.3.1, Agent 0.4.25, Files 0.5.1, Documents 0.4.10 and R 0.4.2 run on Windows (Plugins status). A Notebook session, Console command or Agent client gets a console of its own without a window. Interrupt and Stop raise Ctrl+Break or Ctrl+C there, then end the process tree. R answers on a named pipe, since it cannot open descriptor 3. A Console command's shell ends with Rho on Windows, while the programs it started go on, so a command running when Rho closed is unknown at the next start.

Source checks

Suite	Windows result
Core c3dbeca (fixtures as in 6f83226)	fmt, Clippy, 79 regressions, example
Plugins 491c440	158/166; 8 skipped: Unix script stand-ins for Claude Code (3) and for ssh and serverctl (5)
Rho ef8a0a2f	259/273; 13 skipped; MCP v2 stdio cancelled at its 30 s limit, as on macOS (26 s alone)

The 13 Rho skips are stand-ins written as Unix scripts for Claude Code, Codex or Core (11) and two checks of Unix socket files. Before this pass, the suite had 4 failures and the MCP cancellation. One failure was a test reading R's entry\r\n as entry\n, which an EBUSY in its cleanup had hidden. The three continuity tests failed on the Host lifetime above. launcher-stop and a cmd-quoting test were added; each fails without its change.

Candidate

Field	Value
Artifact	rho-workspace-local-0.5.2.tgz, 12,129,769 bytes, 5,101 files
SHA-256	cf4336f2991642cc8f02a6b0c760360f6f5b78efe3d4435a4e0e23cff56f8753
Platforms	win32-x64; packed on win32-x64 with Node 22.23.4
Application	5b9b613a, clean (the code of ef8a0a2f, with its Windows notes in docs/HEADLESS.md)
Plugins	491c440, clean
Core	c3dbeca (tree 7ffadb94, build inputs 6a01f9e8…), packed from a clean worktree

It carries only the Windows Core: the macOS and Linux Cores are on the Mac (work/platforms-0.5.2/). Core is unchanged, so one tarball for all four platforms takes those three binaries and this one, each with --core PLATFORM=BINARY, and --core-source at c3dbeca. Two earlier candidates are superseded: c9fbd861…, in which Ctrl+Break still ended Rho at once, and a977f571…, whose installed checks matched these but whose HEADLESS.md did not yet describe Windows.

Installation checks

The tarball was installed outside every checkout, offline with an empty npm cache, and run with RHO_CORE_BINARY unset.

Check	Windows 11 x64
Offline install	41 s; 51.8 MiB in 5,137 files; rho.cmd runs
Own platform's Core selected and digest-checked	Yes; removing win32-x64 from the composition and changing the Core's bytes were each refused, and the bytes restored
Packaged recovery acceptance (base R through Core, paused, Host lost)	7 checks
Packaged acceptance, ordinary R project	7 checks
Launcher ready	2.8 s
Notebook	R message, warning, printed text and value in order; a 1008×720 plot; Python in order; no window for either session
Home at 1440/1024/768/390	No page errors; shortcut shown as Ctrl K
Open folder	Windows' folder window, in front; choosing 打开的 folder & co opened that project
project.doctor	All ok; Claude Code installed, Codex not found
Stopped with Ctrl+Break	Exit 0; no Core or Notebook session of the installation left

Choosing the folder first failed. The test's own UI driver invoked automation id 1, which is also the id of a row in the folder list. The window opened that folder instead of choosing it. Clicking the Select Folder button with the row selected returned the folder in 4.5 s.

Not done

• One tarball for macOS, Linux and Windows: it needs the Mac's three Cores.
• Real Claude Code and Codex conversations on Windows. Claude Code is installed but was not run with the person's account; Codex is not installed.
• The stand-in tests, and remote places over ssh or serverctl on Windows.
• Ctrl+C in a person's own terminal. The console here passes Ctrl+C turned off.
• The other episode scripts in scripts/ still assume /tmp and process groups.
• Windows on arm64. No push, registry publication, GitHub release or signing.

Open items

• Core: the stop file's standing, Ctrl+Break handling, and the single pipe instance. The client also does not wait for a busy pipe. Each of these changes the binary.
• The pipe name hashes the state folder, so callers cannot derive it. While a project has no Host, each Core call lists the pipes and asks up to 64 Core Hosts for their project.
• Each full Core regression leaves about 15 empty directory trees in %TEMP%.

Work ran from 2026-11-01 21:13 to 2026-11-02 01:56 (+08:00). Core's part is recorded separately.