Project Resource fails to start if AppHost started with `--artifacts-path`

[afscrome]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Describe the bug

If you try to run an aspire app or a test app where you've passed --artifacts-path into dotnet, then Aspire will be unable to launch project resources as it'll try and fall back to the default artifact path.

Expected Behavior

Project resources should start when the app host is started with --artifacts-path

Steps To Reproduce

I reproed this using the Aspire starter template, although I believe this is reproduceable with any app host project or test project using DistributedApplicationTestingBuilder

# Clean out any non artifact path binaries
dotnet clean

dotnet run --project .\AspireApp2.AppHost\ --artifacts-path .artifacts
dotnet test .\AspireApp2.Tests\ --artifacts-path .artifacts

Exceptions (if any)

 Unhandled exception: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): An error occurred trying to start process 'REDACTED\AspireApp2\AspireApp2.ApiService\bin\Debug\net8.0\AspireApp2.ApiService.exe' with working directory 'REDACTED\AspireApp2\AspireApp2.ApiService'. The system cannot find the file specified.
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithCreateProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Utils.Command.Execute(Action`1 processStarted)
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at Microsoft.DotNet.Tools.Run.RunCommand.Execute()
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at System.CommandLine.Invocation.InvocationPipeline.Invoke(ParseResult parseResult)
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at System.CommandLine.ParseResult.Invoke()
2024-12-06T18:09:23
    at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Program.ProcessArgs(String[] args, TimeSpan startupTime, ITelemetry telemetryClient)

The path it should be looking at is REDACTED\AspireApp2\.artifacts\bin\AspireApp2.ApiService\debug\AspireApp2.ApiService.exe, not REDACTED\AspireApp2\AspireApp2.ApiService\bin\Debug\net8.0\AspireApp2.ApiService.exe

.NET Version info

.NET SDK:
 Version:           9.0.100
 Commit:            59db016f11
 Workload version:  9.0.100-manifests.c6f19616
 MSBuild version:   17.12.7+5b8665660

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.22621
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\9.0.100\

.NET workloads installed:
 [aspire]
   Installation Source: VS 17.12.35514.174
   Manifest Version:    8.2.2/8.0.100
   Manifest Path:       C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk-manifests\8.0.100\microsoft.net.sdk.aspire\8.2.2\WorkloadManifest.json
   Install Type:              Msi

Configured to use loose manifests when installing new manifests.

Host:
  Version:      9.0.0
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       9d5a6a9aa4

.NET SDKs installed:
  6.0.428 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  8.0.404 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  9.0.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 9.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 9.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.36 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 7.0.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 9.0.0 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Other architectures found:
  x86   [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet]
    registered at [HKLM\SOFTWARE\dotnet\Setup\InstalledVersions\x86\InstallLocation]

Environment variables:
  Not set

global.json file:
  Not found

Learn more:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/info

Download .NET:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/download

Anything else?

We've hit this on our standard build template. Our template template sets --artifact-path on all dotnet steps to make publishing easier at the end - this way we just generically push $(ArtifactsPath)/package to our internal nuget feed and publish everything under $(ArtifactsPath)/publish as an artifact.

Locally I have been able to work around this by setting the ArtifactsPath, although this doesn't seem to be working on the build server which I'll need to investigate more next week. I assume this work around works as Environment Variables are automatically inherited by child processes, but the --artifacts-path command line argument is not automatically propagated.

$env:ArtifactsPath = (Resolve-Path '.artifacts')    
# Clean out any non artifact path binaries
dotnet clean

dotnet run --project .\AspireApp2.AppHost\ --artifacts-path .artifacts
dotnet test .\AspireApp2.Tests\ --artifacts-path .artifacts

[afscrome]

The workaround wasn't initially working on our build server because the project in question explicitly set <ArtifactPath /> in it's Directory.Build.props. --artifacts-path sets a global property which overrides any project level properties.
However when using an environment variable, the value set by the project wins.

After removing the ArtifactPath from the Directory.Build.props, the workaround of setting the ArtifactPath environment variable works on our build server.