The connection string isn't parsed correctly in Windows PowerShell

[ianjevans]

From Richard C. on Slack:

the connection string isn't parsed correctly in windows

const command = `cockroach sql --url '${connectionString}' < dbinit.sql`;

If you copy in a windows path for your input from the prompt, the slashes don't parse correctly.
Also most windows users I encountered use powershell and theres no redirection operator.

This caused problems during a Hackathon event.

I think we could replace the redirect with --file dbinit.sql.

[ericharmeling]

Thanks for filing this.

Does --file dbinit.sql resolve the issue on Windows?

One drawback to using --file/-f is that these flags are not supported in CRDB versions < 21.1. (I don't believe cockroachdb/cockroach#54741 was backported).

[ianjevans]

There are two separate issues keeping this from working on Windows:

1. The slashes in the connection string aren't parsed correctly on Windows.
2. The cockroachdb sql command doesn't work with Unix-style redirection on Windows.

One drawback to using --file/-f is that these flags are not supported in CRDB versions < 21.1. (I don't believe cockroachdb/cockroach#54741 was backported).

The CC console gives instructions on downloading v21.1 binaries for Windows:

So presumably Windows users would be able to connect to < v21.1 clusters if they are using v21.1+ binaries, yeah?

[ericharmeling]

I'm just going to remove the command const and have users run the cockroach command themselves. That should resolve both of these issues.

The remaining problem is that the environment variable is not $HOME in Windows connection strings. (As you pointed out here: cockroachlabs/hello-world-node-postgres#1). I can resolve that by just adding an extra condition on the connection string.