Restic link not present in 0.18.1 release on winget

Jake73 · September 26, 2025, 9:30pm

I use winget to install/update restic and have for a long time (over multiple releases of restic). My machine got the update for 0.18.1, but my backup scripts stopped working after the install. It seems that the winget package didn’t install the link like it usually does. The link to restic.exe is usually located at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Links\restic.exe. When winget installs restic, it usually gets a long name that includes the version number (in the case of 0.18.1 it is restic_0.18.1_windows_amd64.exe. This makes it hard to use in a backup script that is looking for where the restic executable is, no matter what version is installed. Where is the best place to report the bug? Is it safe to just put in the link myself? I am unsure because I am not sure if the next version when it installs will be happy that I manually put the link there.

shd2h · September 27, 2025, 11:30am

I would imagine putting the link there yourself would be safe, the next version (assuming it creates a new link) would surely overwrite the existing one?

As to where to report the bug, I think the winget github is probably the logical place.

That said, are you maybe encountering the same issue as this person did?

github.com/microsoft/winget-cli

Symlinks are not created for portable installations

opened 07:12AM - 04 Aug 23 UTC

closed 11:35AM - 06 Aug 23 UTC

clesmian

Portable

### Brief description of your issue When installing a portable app, the execu…table is correctly extracted and stored into the correct location, but the symlink referenced in the respective sqlite DB is not created. IMPORTANT: the chosen example is restic, but it is not limited to this tool. A different example would be VirusTotal.YARA ### Steps to reproduce Using the example of restic: 1. Run `winget install restic` ### Expected behavior - restic is installed to the specified portablePackageUserRoot - a symlink `C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Links\restic.exe` is created pointing to the installed file is created - the directory `C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Links\` is added to the users `PATH` It is possible to start the tool using `restic` ### Actual behavior - restic is installed to the specified portablePackageUserRoot - the directory `<portablePackageUserRoot>\restic.restic_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe` is added to the users `PATH` This makes the tool not available under the alias `restic`, but only `restic_0.15.2_windows_amd64` which is the executable stored to disk ### Environment ```shell Windows Package Manager v1.5.1881 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.19045.3271 System Architecture: X64 Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.20.1881.0 Winget Directories ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Logs %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\DiagOutputDir User Settings %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json Portable Links Directory (User) %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Links Portable Links Directory (Machine) C:\Program Files\WinGet\Links Portable Package Root (User) %USERPROFILE%\tools\ Portable Package Root C:\Program Files\WinGet\Packages Portable Package Root (x86) C:\Program Files (x86)\WinGet\Packages Links --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy Statement https://aka.ms/winget-privacy License Agreement https://aka.ms/winget-license Third Party Notices https://aka.ms/winget-3rdPartyNotice Homepage https://aka.ms/winget Windows Store Terms https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/storedocs/terms-of-sale Admin Setting State -------------------------------------------------- LocalManifestFiles Disabled BypassCertificatePinningForMicrosoftStore Disabled InstallerHashOverride Disabled LocalArchiveMalwareScanOverride Disabled ```

Reading the issue that issue links to (Portable installers are not renamed in non-symlinked installations · Issue #3437 · microsoft/winget-cli · GitHub) it sounds like changes in winget ~~around March this year~~ (Edit: the relevant code change was actually merged in January) have made this particular behaviour more widespread. To quote:

This issue is more exaggerated now with the introduction of ArchiveBinariesDependOnPath: true (#4816). All zip-binary packages will face this issue since those installations are always non-symlink

If restic is a zip-binary package (not sure how to check this), then that could explain why previous versions created the symlink okay (restic 0.18.0 was released near the end of March), but the current version does not create the symlink.
Reading the issue, the workaround seems to be to uninstall, and reinstall as an admin account. That and use an admin account for updates going forward, at least until issue #3437 is resolved.