fix(self-update): remove '--' from manifest XML comment — the real SxS 14001 cause#457
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…S 14001 cause The actual root cause of uffs-update.exe failing to start with ERROR_SXS_CANT_GEN_ACTCTX (os error 14001, "Invalid Xml syntax ... on line 1") was a literal double hyphen inside the manifest's XML comment: the comment body contained the example CLI invocation `uffs --update`, and XML forbids "--" anywhere inside a <!-- --> comment. Windows' strict side-by-side manifest parser rejected the whole manifest. This was present in BOTH the original #454 manifest and the #456 "minimal" rewrite — both carried that same `uffs --update` line in the comment — which is why #456 (dropping <assemblyIdentity>) did not fix it. The Application event log (SideBySide id 59) pinpointed it: "Error in manifest or policy file ... on line 1. Invalid Xml syntax." Fix: reword the comment so no "--" appears in the body, and add an explicit DO-NOT-USE-double-hyphen warning so this never regresses. Verified by extracting the embedded RT_MANIFEST from a freshly cross-compiled uffs-update.exe and running `xmllint --noout` on it: now well-formed (previously malformed). asInvoker is retained, so the #454 Installer-Detection / os error 740 fix still stands. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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The actual root cause
uffs-update.exefailed to start on Windows withERROR_SXS_CANT_GEN_ACTCTX(os error 14001). Three independent diagnostics all point to the same line:SideBySide, id 59): "Error in manifest or policy file ... on line 1. Invalid Xml syntax."The embedded manifest's XML comment contained the literal example invocation
uffs --update— and XML forbids--(double hyphen) inside a<!-- -->comment. Windows' strict side-by-side manifest parser rejects the whole manifest.Why the earlier fixes missed it
That
uffs --updateline was in the comment of both the original #454 manifest and the #456 "minimal" rewrite. So #456 (which removed<assemblyIdentity>) never touched the real fault — the binary kept crashing identically. The breakthrough was the event log / sxstrace pinpointing line 1 / Invalid Xml, not the elements.Fix
Reword the comment so no
--appears in the body, plus an explicit DO-NOT-USE-double-hyphen warning to prevent regression.asInvokeris unchanged, so the #454 Installer-Detection / os error 740 fix still holds.Verification
Extracted the embedded
RT_MANIFESTfrom a freshly cross-compileduffs-update.exeand validated it:🤖 Generated with Claude Code