Error on Arch Linux: Path to shell executable "/usr/lib/usr/bin/swift" does not exist.

[bitnom]

Error: Path to shell executable "/usr/lib/usr/bin/swift" does not exist. which also prevents my vscode terminal from working.

I saw #218

My binaries are at /usr/lib/swift/bin which I added to $PATH and started code via :

env PATH=/usr/lib/swift/bin:$PATH code ./

but I continue to get the error The terminal process failed to launch: Path to shell executable "/usr/lib/usr/bin/swift" does not exist. as well as SourceKit error Launching server using command /usr/lib/usr/bin/sourcekit-lsp failed. Error: spawn /usr/lib/usr/bin/sourcekit-lsp ENOENT

If I manually set Swift: Path extension setting to /usr/lib/swift/bin I get the same error.

When swift was installed, it linked /usr/lib/swift/bin/swift to /bin/swift. I deleted the link while trying to resolve this issue.

λ ls -hal /usr/lib/swift/bin
Permissions Size User Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x     - root 28 Jul 08:37   .
drwxr-xr-x     - root 28 Jul 08:37   ..
drwxr-xr-x     - root 28 Jul 08:37   sdk-module-lists
lrwxrwxrwx     8 root 28 Jul 08:36   clang -> clang-13
lrwxrwxrwx     5 root 28 Jul 08:36   clang++ -> clang
.rwxr-xr-x  121M root 28 Jul 08:36   clang-13
lrwxrwxrwx     5 root 28 Jul 08:36   clang-cache -> clang
lrwxrwxrwx     5 root 28 Jul 08:36   clang-cl -> clang
lrwxrwxrwx     5 root 28 Jul 08:36   clang-cpp -> clang
.rwxr-xr-x   49M root 28 Jul 08:36   clangd
.rwxr-xr-x   50M root 28 Jul 08:36   docc
lrwxrwxrwx     3 root 28 Jul 08:36   ld.lld -> lld
lrwxrwxrwx     3 root 28 Jul 08:36   ld64.lld -> lld
.rwxr-xr-x   74M root 28 Jul 08:36   lld
lrwxrwxrwx     3 root 28 Jul 08:36   lld-link -> lld
.rwxr-xr-x  255k root 28 Jul 08:36   lldb
.rwxr-xr-x   88k root 28 Jul 08:36   lldb-argdumper
.rwxr-xr-x   99M root 28 Jul 08:36   lldb-server
.rwxr-xr-x   14M root 28 Jul 08:36   llvm-ar
.rwxr-xr-x  5.2M root 28 Jul 08:36   llvm-cov
.rwxr-xr-x  5.8M root 28 Jul 08:36   llvm-profdata
.rwxr-xr-x  8.6M root 28 Jul 08:36   plutil
.rwxr-xr-x  8.1k root 28 Jul 08:36   repl_swift
.rwxr-xr-x  127M root 28 Jul 08:36   sourcekit-lsp
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift -> swift-frontend
.rwxr-xr-x   12k root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-api-checker.py
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-api-digester -> swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-api-extract -> swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-autolink-extract -> swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-build -> swift-package
.rwxr-xr-x   36M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-build-sdk-interfaces
.rwxr-xr-x  1.4M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-build-tool
.rwxr-xr-x  1.6M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-demangle
.rwxr-xr-x   36M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-driver
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-experimental-destination -> swift-package
.rwxr-xr-x  147M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-frontend
.rwxr-xr-x   11M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-help
.rwxr-xr-x   93M root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-package
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-package-collection -> swift-package
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-package-registry -> swift-package
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-run -> swift-package
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-symbolgraph-extract -> swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx    13 root 28 Jul 08:36   swift-test -> swift-package
lrwxrwxrwx    14 root 28 Jul 08:36   swiftc -> swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx     3 root 28 Jul 08:36   wasm-ld -> lld

Environment

• OS: Garuda Linux (Arch)
• Swift version: 5.8.1
• Visual Studio Code version: 1.8.1.1
• vscode-swift version: v1.5.1

Additional context
The package: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/swift-bin

executing sudo ln -s /usr/lib/swift/bin /usr/lib/usr/bin temporarily fixed the issue, though this is obviously not great.

[adam-fowler]

It looks like your Swift install does not follow the standard pattern for a Linux install. Executables should be in a folder usr/bin relative to the root of your install.

How did you install Swift?

[stevapple]

I guess Swift is failing because /usr/lib/swift is a hard-coded path for Swift compiler resources (system-wide). A proper installation should be /usr/libexec/swift. The package is absolutely doing something dangerous.

P.S. Linking Swift binary into /bin is also discouraged. /bin is a place for system essentials. Swift should be linked into /usr/bin instead.

[jdberry]

I'm having a very similar problem with vscode-swift. My installation is on a raspberry-pi 64 bit bullseye. Swift 5.8 installed from the distribution at https://swift-arm.com.

I get the following errors in VSCode, to which I'm a novice:

[Error - 11:43:21] SourceKit Language Server client: couldn't create connection to server.
Launching server using command /usr/libexec/usr/bin/sourcekit-lsp failed. Error: spawn /usr/libexec/usr/bin/sourcekit-lsp ENOENT

Failed to load watchdog/Package.swift: {"errno":-2,"code":"ENOENT","syscall":"spawn /usr/libexec/usr/bin/swift","path":"/usr/libexec/usr/bin/swift","spawnargs":["package","describe","--type","json"],"cmd":"/usr/libexec/usr/bin/swift package describe --type json"}

$ env | grep PATH
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
$ ls -l /usr/bin | grep swift
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          36 Sep  9 11:20 sourcekit-lsp -> /usr/libexec/swift/bin/sourcekit-lsp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          37 Sep  9 11:18 swift -> /usr/libexec/swift/bin/swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          37 Sep  9 11:19 swiftc -> /usr/libexec/swift/bin/swift-frontend
$ ls /usr/libexec/swift
bin  include  lib  local  share

Is this an issue with how the swift-arm distribution is layed out? @futurejones

(The symlinks in /usr/bin were initially relative links like the following, but I made them absolute, thinking that might be the issue):

$ ls -l /usr/bin/ | grep swift
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          34 Jun  1 22:30 sourcekit-lsp -> ../libexec/swift/bin/sourcekit-lsp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          35 Jun  1 22:30 swift -> ../libexec/swift/bin/swift-frontend
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          35 Jun  1 22:30 swiftc -> ../libexec/swift/bin/swift-frontend

[adam-fowler]

The extension assumes that all swift toolchains are structured as the Apple released ones ie all binaries are inside a usr/bin folder. This was a recent change previously it was more flexible but subject to some vagueness about where to find executables. I can review this change.

Perhaps @futurejones can comment on why he chose to not include the usr folder in his installs.

[stevapple]

🤔After trying to understand the situation correctly… It seems the fix is as simple as not hard-coding (and relying on) the parent directory of bin to be usr? I can’t think about any use cases where we’re relying on it to get things work.

[futurejones]

The extension assumes that all swift toolchains are structured as the Apple released ones ie all binaries are inside a usr/bin folder. This was a recent change previously it was more flexible but subject to some vagueness about where to find executables.

@adam-fowler can you post links to the commits where this change has occurred.

Moving the installation directory from /usr/ to /usr/libexec/swift/ was done to eliminate conflicts caused by swift shipping with its own version of clang, llvm, libicu and others. Adding an extra /usr was not added as there was no indication that is was needed in testing prior to the package releases.

The installation directory can be changed to /usr/libexec/swift/usr/ if this will fix the issue but I would like to know why this is now needed as there was no issues previously with this installation path.

[adam-fowler]

ok, I'll have to work around it. I made an assumption that all swift installs were structured as Apple structured theirs.