Add persistent output locale override setting by Trenly · Pull Request #6310 · microsoft/winget-cli

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) · 2026-06-21T04:50:17Z

📖 Description

Add a persistent output.locale user setting that allows overriding winget interface string resolution by BCP47 tag.

Current implementation details:

Reads .output.locale at CLI startup and applies the override only when the setting is non-empty.
Applies the override through Resource::SetLanguageOverride, which sets the MRT Language qualifier for winget resource loading.
Treats override failures as non-fatal (logs warning and continues without the override).
Uses wil::srwlock in the shared resource loader for synchronized read/write access when resolving strings and updating locale override.
Does not apply this setting in server initialization.

This PR also updates settings schema/documentation and local package resource fallback handling for localized winget.resw files.

🔗 References

Resolves #422

🤖 Copilot Assistance

This PR includes changes authored with GitHub Copilot assistance.

🔍 Validation

Added/updated unit tests for OutputLocale setting parsing/normalization behavior.
Added E2E coverage verifying help output changes when output.locale changes.

✅ Checklist

Signed the Contributor License Agreement
Linked to an issue
Updated Release Notes (if applicable)
Updated documentation (if applicable)
Updated Copilot instructions (if build, architecture, or conventions changed)

📋 Issue Type

Bug fix
Feature
Task

Microsoft Reviewers: Open in CodeFlow

* Add output.locale setting and schema support * Apply runtime language qualifier override for resource resolution * Include localized resw fallbacks in dev package and update docs/release notes Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

…tput-locale-override

Flor Chacón (florelis)

LGTM, but I'd want to hold off on merging until we have a plan for what to do with App Installer.

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-01T22:27:48Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-01T22:27:58Z

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azure-pipelines · 2026-07-14T21:31:34Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-14T21:46:43Z

Looks like we will need to reset the override in App Installer. Internal PR number for that: 16173490
I won't merge this until that other change is in place.

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-23T18:37:29Z

Question from internal discussion:
Instead of overriding the primary language like this, would it be possible to just add the locale qualifier when creating the resource loader? That would avoid setting the locale package-wide, and we wouldn't need to make any changes to App Installer.

…tput-locale-override

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-28T19:03:53Z

+
+        bool SetLanguageOverride(std::string_view localeTag)
+        {
+            return Loader::Instance().SetLanguageOverride(Utility::ConvertToUTF16(localeTag));


Nit: Assuming this is done before any localized strings are fetched, this is going to create a loader with default options, and then immediately overwrite it with a new one that uses the locale. We could make it so that we only needed to create it once, but that's probably too small a gain to care.

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-28T19:07:41Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-28T19:07:51Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) · 2026-07-28T19:40:47Z

Grrr, pesky build failures

…tput-locale-override

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) · 2026-07-28T20:08:50Z

Flor Chacón (@florelis) - I've merged the latest changes from master to see if that resolves the ADO build issue despite it building locally without them. I've verified it builds locally after the merge:

Flor Chacón (florelis) · 2026-07-28T20:27:05Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-28T20:27:16Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

ApplyOutputLocaleOverride() unconditionally triggered Loader::Instance() at startup for every command, including dscv3 --manifest which runs winget.exe unpackaged during the WinGetGenerateDSCv3Manifests build step. The Loader() constructor had been refactored to call CreateLoader({}), which calls ResourceContext::ResetGlobalQualifierValues() before ResourceLoader(). This broke the safety guard that the original code relied on: when unpackaged and resource.pri is not found, ResourceLoader() throws a catchable hresult_error, preventing execution from reaching ResourceLoader::GetForViewIndependentUse which fast-fails with an uncatchable crash (0xC0000409 STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN) when not under a debugger. Two fixes: - Restore the original constructor initialization path (without calling CreateLoader) so the ResourceLoader() probe is not interfered with - Guard ApplyOutputLocaleOverride to skip loader initialization entirely when no locale override is configured (the common case) Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) · 2026-07-28T21:55:02Z

Root Cause Analysis

Note

This comment was authored by GitHub Copilot.

Root cause: ApplyOutputLocaleOverride() unconditionally accessed Loader::Instance() at startup for every command. The WinGetGenerateDSCv3Manifests build step runs winget.exe dscv3 --manifest as an unpackaged process (before MSIX packaging), and the refactored Loader() constructor now calls CreateLoader({}) which calls ResourceContext::ResetGlobalQualifierValues() before the ResourceLoader() probe.

The original code relied on ResourceLoader() throwing a catchable hresult_error when resource.pri is not found (unpackaged context) — this prevented execution from ever reaching ResourceLoader::GetForViewIndependentUse, which fast-fails with an uncatchable crash (0xC0000409) when no debugger is attached. Calling ResetGlobalQualifierValues first changed the WinRT resource state and broke this safety guard.

Fix

Two changes applied in commit 25c246a:

Resources.cpp: Restored the original constructor initialization path — no ResetGlobalQualifierValues call, preserving the ResourceLoader() probe guard
Core.cpp: Guard ApplyOutputLocaleOverride() to return early when the locale setting is empty, avoiding Loader::Instance() initialization at startup for commands that don't need UI output (like dscv3 --manifest)

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

JohnMcPMS · 2026-09-01T18:34:16Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-09-01T18:34:26Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) changed the base branch from release-v1.29 to master June 21, 2026 04:51

microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added Issue-Feature This is a feature request for the Windows Package Manager client. Area-Settings Issue related to WinGet Settings labels Jun 21, 2026

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) commented Jun 21, 2026

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Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLIPackage/AppInstallerCLIPackage.wapproj

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) marked this pull request as ready for review June 21, 2026 05:10

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) requested a review from a team as a code owner June 21, 2026 05:10

JohnMcPMS reviewed Jun 24, 2026

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Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLICore/Core.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLICore/Core.cpp Outdated

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) added 2 commits June 23, 2026 19:38

Ignore server and core

5e8451f

Move application of override locale to same location as log

dd556b2

Flor Chacón (florelis) reviewed Jun 26, 2026

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Comment thread src/AppInstallerCommonCore/UserSettings.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLITests/UserSettings.cpp

Comment thread doc/windows/package-manager/winget/settings.md

Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLICore/Core.cpp Outdated

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) added 3 commits June 29, 2026 15:01

Add missing semicolon

62d7b58

Test for valid but unsupported locale

bf625f8

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into trenly/fix-422-ou…

71d7a29

…tput-locale-override

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) requested review from JohnMcPMS and Flor Chacón (florelis) June 29, 2026 20:52

Restrict to valid locales

e7a72b2

Flor Chacón (florelis) requested changes Jun 30, 2026

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microsoft-github-policy-service Bot assigned Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) Jun 30, 2026

microsoft-github-policy-service Bot added Needs-Author-Feedback Issue needs attention from issue or PR author Needs-Attention Issue needs attention from Microsoft and removed Needs-Author-Feedback Issue needs attention from issue or PR author labels Jun 30, 2026

Use strings directly instead of enum roundtripping

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Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) requested a review from Flor Chacón (florelis) July 1, 2026 13:04

Flor Chacón (florelis) previously approved these changes Jul 1, 2026

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Merge anonymous namespaces

6f7c3b4

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) dismissed Flor Chacón (florelis)’s stale review via 6f7c3b4 July 2, 2026 04:00

Flor Chacón (florelis) previously approved these changes Jul 14, 2026

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Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) added 3 commits July 27, 2026 18:14

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into trenly/fix-422-ou…

38c8df4

…tput-locale-override

Update so the resource loader does the override

2abe827

Add E2E test for validating the output locale changes

a48f0e0

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) dismissed Flor Chacón (florelis)’s stale review via a48f0e0 July 28, 2026 00:05

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) requested a review from Flor Chacón (florelis) July 28, 2026 00:05

Flor Chacón (florelis) previously approved these changes Jul 28, 2026

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Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into trenly/fix-422-ou…

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…tput-locale-override

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) dismissed Flor Chacón (florelis)’s stale review via 25c246a July 28, 2026 21:52

JohnMcPMS reviewed Aug 4, 2026

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Comment thread src/AppInstallerSharedLib/Resources.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/AppInstallerCLICore/Core.cpp

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) and others added 2 commits August 5, 2026 21:37

Merge remote tracking branch upstream/master

8453ff9

Use srwlock for resource loader synchronization

c495788

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) requested a review from JohnMcPMS August 6, 2026 02:56

JohnMcPMS approved these changes Sep 1, 2026

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JohnMcPMS merged commit 9e7f797 into microsoft:master Sep 1, 2026
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microsoft-github-policy-service Bot removed the Needs-Attention Issue needs attention from Microsoft label Sep 1, 2026

Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly) deleted the trenly/fix-422-output-locale-override branch September 2, 2026 01:21

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📖 Description

🔗 References

🤖 Copilot Assistance

🔍 Validation

✅ Checklist

📋 Issue Type

Microsoft Reviewers: Open in CodeFlow

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Root Cause Analysis

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