ament_clang_format (tidy?) doesn't work on Windows

[tony-p]

Solution to issue cannot be found in the documentation.

• I checked the documentation.

Issue

When trying to use ament-clang-format on windows, it cannot find the clang-format that exists on the conda env path. Although I have only tested it on ament-clang-format, I imagine it is a standard issue as I guess it has more to do with how the executable is created. It only appears to be an issue on windows, linux works fine.

to reproduce
pixi.toml

[workspace]
channels = ["conda-forge", "robostack-jazzy"]
name = "test-ament-clang-format"
platforms = ["win-64"]
version = "0.1.0"

[tasks]

[dependencies]
clang-format = "*"
ros-jazzy-ament-clang-format = "*"

create a simple C++ file in directory (otherwise complains there is nothing to format

from git bash or similar

pixi run /c/test-ament-clang-format/.pixi/envs/default/Library/bin/ament_clang_format.exe

> Could not find 'clang-format' / 'clang-format-3.8' / 'clang-format-3.7' / 'clang-format-3.6' / 'clang-format-3.5' / 'clang-format-3.4' / 'clang-format-3.3' executable

Note I first discovered this via the ament-cmake-clang-format cmake plugin, but it is easier to reproduce without that

Installed packages

Package                       Version                Build                  Size       Kind   Source
bzip2                         1.0.8                  h2466b09_7             53.6 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
ca-certificates               2025.8.3               h4c7d964_0             150.9 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
clang-format                  19.1.7                 default_hec7ea82_3     1.2 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libblas                       3.9.0                  34_h5709861_mkl        68.9 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libcblas                      3.9.0                  34_h2a3cdd5_mkl        69 KiB     conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libexpat                      2.7.1                  hac47afa_0             138 KiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libffi                        3.4.6                  h537db12_1             43.9 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libhwloc                      2.12.1                 default_h88281d1_1000  2.3 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libiconv                      1.18                   hc1393d2_2             680.6 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
liblapack                     3.9.0                  34_hf9ab0e9_mkl        80.3 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
liblzma                       5.8.1                  h2466b09_2             102.5 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libsqlite                     3.50.4                 hf5d6505_0             1.2 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libwinpthread                 12.0.0.r4.gg4f2fc60ca  h57928b3_9             35 KiB     conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libxml2                       2.13.8                 h741aa76_1             1.4 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
libzlib                       1.3.1                  h2466b09_2             54.2 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
llvm-openmp                   20.1.8                 hfa2b4ca_1             286.8 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
mkl                           2024.2.2               h57928b3_16            98.3 MiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
numpy                         1.26.4                 py312h8753938_0        6.2 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
openssl                       3.5.2                  h725018a_0             8.8 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
python                        3.12.11                h3f84c4b_0_cpython     15.1 MiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
python_abi                    3.12                   8_cp312                6.8 KiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
pyyaml                        6.0.2                  py312h31fea79_2        177.5 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
ros-jazzy-ament-clang-format  0.17.2                 np126py312h4d29ed4_9   34.7 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/robostack-jazzy/
ros-jazzy-ros-workspace       1.0.3                  np126py312h4d29ed4_9   31.2 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/robostack-jazzy/
ros2-distro-mutex             0.10.0                 jazzy_9                2.3 KiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/robostack-jazzy/
tbb                           2021.13.0              h18a62a1_2             146.4 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
tk                            8.6.13                 h2c6b04d_2             3.3 MiB    conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
tzdata                        2025b                  h78e105d_0             120.1 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
ucrt                          10.0.22621.0           h57928b3_1             546.6 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
vc                            14.3                   h41ae7f8_31            17.8 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
vc14_runtime                  14.44.35208            h818238b_31            666.4 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
vcomp14                       14.44.35208            h818238b_31            111.3 KiB  conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
yaml                          0.2.5                  h6a83c73_3             62.4 KiB   conda  https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/

Environment info

System
------------
       Pixi version: 0.45.0
           Platform: win-64
   Virtual packages: __win=10.0.19045=0
                   : __cuda=12.8=0
                   : __archspec=1=skylake
          Cache dir: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\rattler\cache     
       Auth storage: C:\Users\me\.rattler\credentials.json       
   Config locations: No config files found

Global
------------
            Bin dir: C:\Users\me\.pixi\bin
    Environment dir: C:\Users\me\.pixi\envs
       Manifest dir: C:\Users\me\.pixi\manifests\pixi-global.toml

Workspace
------------
               Name: test-ament-clang-format
            Version: 0.1.0
      Manifest file: C:\test-ament-clang-format\pixi.toml
       Last updated: 18-08-2025 12:02:19

Environments
------------
        Environment: default
           Features: default
           Channels: conda-forge, robostack-jazzy
   Dependency count: 2
       Dependencies: clang-format, ros-jazzy-ament-clang-format
   Target platforms: win-64

[traversaro]

In the title you mention that easy_install is related to the issue, but I can reproduce it also by just running the script:

(test-ament-clang-format) D:\src\pixiws\rosjazzy98>python %CONDA_PREFIX%\Lib\site-packages\ament_clang_format\main.py
Could not find 'clang-format' / 'clang-format-3.8' / 'clang-format-3.7' / 'clang-format-3.6' / 'clang-format-3.5' / 'clang-format-3.4' / 'clang-format-3.3' executable

Is the easy_install connection an hypothesis?

[traversaro]

I think the bug is in the find_executable function that is not appropriate on Windows (see https://github.com/ament/ament_lint/blob/c945d9089cf2b60101740cdcecdee414fac984ff/ament_clang_format/ament_clang_format/main.py#L248), as it does not consider that executables can end with .exe.

[tony-p]

In the title you mention that easy_install is related to the issue, but I can reproduce it also by just running the script:

(test-ament-clang-format) D:\src\pixiws\rosjazzy98>python %CONDA_PREFIX%\Lib\site-packages\ament_clang_format\main.py
Could not find 'clang-format' / 'clang-format-3.8' / 'clang-format-3.7' / 'clang-format-3.6' / 'clang-format-3.5' / 'clang-format-3.4' / 'clang-format-3.3' executable

Is the easy_install connection an hypothesis?

yes it was a hypothesis as I guessed it must not be looking on the correct path but the other sounds more plausible. In the installed package everything is bundled in the executable, and past quickly scrolling through the script on github I didn't dig into it further

[traversaro]

The patch ament/ament_lint@0dcf13f seems to work, are you interested in submitting a fix in ros-jazzy and also upstream? The logic is duplicated around (see ament/ament_lint#157) but at a first glance the bug is only present for ament_clang_format and ament_clang_tidy .

[tony-p]

I can definitely look at the fixes for upstream, If I'm the only one suffering, I don't mind leaving the fix until the next rebuild on robostack, to save making and then removing the patch again