On Windows, scan -g finds no Composer global packages in the default %APPDATA%\Composer home, so apply -g and vex -g silently do nothing #438

[agent] Found by the scheduled Composer bug-hunt routine (ledger #321).

Summary

On Windows, with COMPOSER_HOME unset (the normal setup), socket-patch scan -g discovers zero Composer packages even though composer global require installed them under Composer's default global home, %APPDATA%\Composer\vendor. scan -g --mode agent prints No global packages found. and exits 0, and vex -g has nothing to attest. If you set COMPOSER_HOME to the same directory explicitly, everything works.

Root cause (two compounding gaps in get_composer_home):

1. crates/socket-patch-core/src/crawlers/composer_crawler.rs:374 runs composer global config home through SystemCommandRunner::run (crates/socket-patch-core/src/utils/process.rs:137). That calls Command::new("composer") directly, without the PATHEXT-aware resolve_tool that the same file provides. On Windows, Composer is installed as composer.bat (setup-php: C:\tools\php\composer + composer.bat; the official installer works the same way), so the spawn fails and returns None. .github/workflows/composer-compatibility.yml:18-20 already notes that "Command::new("composer") cannot resolve composer.bat".
2. The platform fallback (composer_crawler.rs:396-410) probes only $HOME/.composer and $HOME/.config/composer. It never probes Composer's Windows default, %APPDATA%\Composer. On Linux it also ignores $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/composer, which Composer uses when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set. So the fallback can't recover. Confirmed locally on Linux: with XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/x/xdg and composer run as php composer.phar (not on PATH), scan -g reports No global packages found.

Impact

Global Composer tools on Windows (phpstan, php-cs-fixer, laravel/installer, and so on) can't be scanned, patched or attested with -g. The failure is silent: exit 0 and "No global packages found." This violates the maintainer requirement that scan -g must find every globally installed package with a patch.

Repro (Git Bash on Windows, any Composer 1.10–2.10)

unset COMPOSER_HOME
composer global require <vendor>/<pkg-with-a-patch>      # lands in %APPDATA%\Composer\vendor
socket-patch scan -g --json --ecosystems composer       # packagesWithPatches: 0, scannedPackages: 0
socket-patch scan -g --mode agent --yes --ecosystems composer   # "No global packages found." exit 0
COMPOSER_HOME="$APPDATA/Composer" socket-patch scan -g --json --ecosystems composer   # found: 1

The probe used a local path-repo package acme/[email protected] and a mock patch API (no secrets).

Expected vs actual

• Expected: CLI_CONTRACT.md --global / -g: "Operate on globally-installed packages". The crawler doc comment says global mode checks "$COMPOSER_HOME/vendor/ (env var, command fallback, or platform defaults)", and %APPDATA%\Composer is Composer's platform default on Windows.
• Actual: the command fallback can't spawn composer.bat, and the platform defaults omit %APPDATA%\Composer, so nothing is found.

OS × version

Windows reproduced in two separate probe runs (6 jobs): https://github.com/SocketDev/socket-patch/actions/runs/36823671080 and https://github.com/SocketDev/socket-patch/actions/runs/36827949605

First bad version

Not a regression from v5. The global branch (composer_crawler.rs:52-64) predates the shallow history, and the same code ships in v4.0.0.

Suspect code

• crates/socket-patch-core/src/utils/process.rs:137 (Command::new(bin), no resolve_tool)
• crates/socket-patch-core/src/crawlers/composer_crawler.rs:374 and :396-410 (fallback candidates)

crates/socket-patch-core/src/crawlers/ruby_crawler.rs:549 (gem env) goes through the same runner. That's out of scope here, and I've handed it to the bundler routine as a lead.