[bug] MSBuildDeps path handling

[sct2010]

Describe the bug

Hi All

The MSBuildDeps generates the conan_xxx_vars_debug_x64.props and conan_xxx_vars_release_x64.props files. The paths in these files are normalized and all \ are replaced with /. This works in most cases. There is one case where it does't work as expected. If there is an executable in the <ConanxxxBinaryDirectories> directory and I would like to open the application with the ShellExecuteEx an error occurred.

If I replace the / with \ in the props file, the application starts properly.

Why do you replace the \ with / in the first place? is it really needed? In all my other files, I use the \ for paths and I never faced any issue.

How to reproduce it

Drop an executable to the binary folder of any dependencies. Start the program with the following code snippet:

SHELLEXECUTEINFO ShExecInfo;

ShExecInfo.cbSize = sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFO);
ShExecInfo.fMask = SEE_MASK_DOENVSUBST;
ShExecInfo.hwnd = NULL;
ShExecInfo.lpVerb = L"open";
ShExecInfo.lpFile = L"testapplication.exe";
ShExecInfo.lpParameters = args;
ShExecInfo.lpDirectory = currentDir;
ShExecInfo.nShow = SW_SHOW;
ShExecInfo.hInstApp = NULL;

auto res = ShellExecuteEx(&ShExecInfo);

[memsharded]

Hi @sct2010

Thanks for your report.

The paths are normalized, because they are traditionally more problematic with the \\ than with /, and most build systems like CMake actually needs / in different places.
So it is possible that the MSBuild integrations have inherited that from those other integrations.
I have tried today to avoid the replacement, and it seems most of the tests work.
I am still a bit concerned this might be breaking unexpectedly some other users, I think I'll open the PR and discuss over it.

[memsharded]

Lets see what happens with #17901

[memsharded]

#17901 has been merged, fixing this issue, it will be in next Conan 2.14.
Thanks again for your feedback.