bunx postinstall throws "could not determine executable to run for package exec"

[Lol1chw]

What version of Bun is running?

1.1.0+5903a6141

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.22631.0 x64

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. bun create vite
   1. Project Name - reproduce-bun-bug
   2. Select Framework - Vue
   3. Select a variant - Customize with create-vue
   4. Select the options you need
   5. bun install
2. Following the shadcn-vue installation guide
3. bunx --bun shadcn-vue@latest init

What is the expected behavior?

Successful launch of cli shadcn-vue

What do you see instead?

$ bunx --bun shadcn-vue@latest init
  ⚙️  vue-demi [1/1] error: could not determine executable to run for package exec      

error: postinstall script from "vue-demi" exited with 1

Additional information

Issue thread in discord

[Lol1chw]

UPD: I tried using the full command "bun x" instead of the alias and it worked

🚧Workaround:

Use bun x instead of the alias bunx

[Jarred-Sumner]

Fixed by #9729

[Jarred-Sumner]

Fixed in #9729, please try again after running bun upgrade --canary in about an hour (or wait for Bun v1.1.1). Let us know if you run into this again.

[bamontales]

I have experienced this in v1.1.8.

[jdkcoder]

same as bamontales, experienced this in Bun v1.1.8

[OliverWich]

Still (or again) present in Bun v1.1.10 (1.1.10+5102a9443)...

Curiously, the tip from @Lol1chw of using bun x instead of bunx works. Strange.

[Lucklj521]

Still present in Bun 1.1.18 and bun x instead of bunx also works.

[Lol1chw]

Reopen issue because the problem is still unresolved.

[forsureitsme]

Still present in Bun 1.1.29 and bun x instead of bunx still works.

[hahagu]

Can confirm that this is still present in 1.1.36 with shadcn-vue

[CosmoMyzrailGorynych]

Note: bun x versus bunx is most likely a fluke as just running the same bunx command twice can fix installation. For example, this is what happens when I try to install @neutralinojs/cli library. (It uses bufferutil which throws an error when installing)

Also this issue is not exclusive to Windows. (Faced it on Fedora, too)

[Arctomachine]

Encountered this problem with create-next-app in earlier versions, but not anymore.
In version 1.1.42 it happens for bunx storybook@latest init

bunx storybook@latest init
  ⚙️  esbuild [1/1] error: could not determine executable to run for package exec

error: postinstall script from "esbuild" exited with 1

Contrary to above post, running same command multiple times gives same error, but bun x worked

[RiskyMH]

I have come to find out some interesting details:

• bunx my-package works after second attempt (if it was postinstall issue)
• bunx my-package@tag doesn't work as forces cache clear
• bunx [email protected] works after second attempt
• bun x my-package@tag works though (even if bunx didn't), so it must not be force clearing cache
• for the first one I think it stops working first time occasionally (probably every day) to clear cache to try to be latest

I am feeling like this is possibly a race condition on not letting postinstall finish and go straight to trying to run it.

[RiskyMH]

Update my initial theory was wrong, it appears like bunx behavior was slightly different in windows and the cli didn't account for this, see my fix in #17076

---

There is still one issue I haven't worked out: bunx supabase@latest, this works well on linux and npm but:

C:\>bunx supabase@latest
error: could not determine executable to run for package supabase

# installed on local project works though
C:\>bun add supabase
C:\>bunx supabase

I'm not sure the reason behind this, but if you go to the bunx cache folder and run bun i it will also work. So there must be some other issues with postinstall. All my above fix was doing was helping executing the package once it was installed (which explains why second attempt works)

[RiskyMH]

• the other issue I mentioned is probably Run postinstall on bun install --force #5327

[MordechaiHadad]

Have similar issue on latest version on windows (which is what prompted RIsky to comment here)

[RiskyMH]

If it works with bun x <pkg>, then it will work with my fix of bunx to be equal quality