bazelbuild/bazel

Bazel sends host's PATH to remote executor

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#28065 opened on Dec 19, 2025

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 (6 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Java (25,384 stars) (4,465 forks)batch import
P3area-Windowshelp wantedteam-Remote-Exectype: bug

Description

Description of the bug:

Even with the strict action env, the PATH that gets sent to a remote action can be very incorrect. For example, when running on a Windows host and a linux executor, I see PATH=C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\bin;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0.

This results in bash scripts being unable to execute shebangs such as #!/usr/bin/env bash as there is no bash in the (nonsense) PATH

Which category does this issue belong to?

No response

What's the simplest, easiest way to reproduce this bug? Please provide a minimal example if possible.

No response

Which operating system are you running Bazel on?

No response

What is the output of bazel info release?

No response

If bazel info release returns development version or (@non-git), tell us how you built Bazel.

No response

What's the output of git remote get-url origin; git rev-parse HEAD ?

If this is a regression, please try to identify the Bazel commit where the bug was introduced with bazelisk --bisect.

No response

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

No response

Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

cc @fmeum

Contributor guide

Tech stack
java
Domain
build system
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Understanding of Bazel remote executionKnowledge of environment variables
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15
Research direction
Investigate how Bazel constructs the environment for remote actions. Look at the RemoteActionExecutionContext and how PATH is inherited from the host. Check the source files in src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/remote/ for environment handling. The linked comment from @fmeum may provide additional context. Consider whether the PATH should be sanitized or overridden for remote executors.