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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"`rs` command collides with the pre-installed BSD rs (reshape) utility on macOS/BSD, causing a silent, CPU-idle hang","articleBody":"## Environment\n\n- rstack: 0.8.0\n- Node.js: v24.21.0\n- pnpm: 12.6.0\n- OS: macOS 27\n- Package manager mode: pnpm strict node_modules\n\n## Summary\nOn macOS and other BSD-derived operating systems (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD), `/usr/bin/rs` is a standard pre-installed utility (BSD `rs` — \"reshape a data array\", part of the base system since 4.2BSD). When Rstack CLI's `rs` binary is not resolved first on `$PATH` (e.g. when typed directly in an interactive shell rather than invoked through a package.json script), the shell falls back to the OS-native `/usr/bin/rs` instead of `node_modules/.bin/rs`.\n\n## Steps to reproduce\n1. In a project using `rstack@0.8.0`, open a plain shell (not through `pnpm run \u003cscript>`) and run:\n```shell\nrs check\n```\n2. The command hangs indefinitely with no output.\n3. `Ctrl+C` exits with no error message.\n4. Running `npx rs check` (which forces resolution to the local `node_modules/.bin/rs`) works correctly and completes.\n\n## Root cause\nBSD's `rs` utility reads from standard input by default and blocks waiting for piped input when invoked with no valid input stream — this matches the observed symptoms exactly:\n- Near-zero CPU usage during the hang (blocked on a `read()` call, not computing)\n- No output before or after interruption\n- Resolved entirely by forcing local binary resolution via `npx`/`pnpm exec`\n\n## Impact\nThis affects any BSD-derived OS (macOS included) where `/usr/bin/rs` precedes the project's `node_modules/.bin` in `$PATH` — which is the default shell behavior outside of npm/pnpm script execution contexts. Linux (GNU coreutils-based) is unaffected, as it has no native `rs` command.\n\n## Suggested fix\nSince renaming the `rs` binary would be a breaking change, consider:\n- Documenting the `$PATH` collision explicitly in the README, alongside a recommendation to invoke via `pnpm exec rs` / `npx rs` rather than a bare `rs` in interactive shells\n- Optionally detecting this collision at runtime (e.g., checking `which rs` resolves to the expected package path) and warning the user\n\n## Related\nThis was discovered while investigating what first appeared to be an unrelated hang in `rs check --type-check`; see #519 for the original (now corrected) report.","author":{"url":"https://github.com/logue","@type":"Person","name":"logue"},"datePublished":"2026-09-24T09:52:38Z","url":"https://github.com/rstackjs/rstack-cli/issues/518"}