Document possible values of `state`

[KirillOsenkov]

The json output contains "state": 4294967295,

I need to know what this value represents and what are the possible values.

[KirillOsenkov]

enum InstanceState
{
	/// <summary>
	/// The instance state has not been determined.
	/// </summary>
	eNone = 0,

	/// <summary>
	/// The instance installation path exists.
	/// </summary>
	eLocal = 1,

	/// <summary>
	/// A product is registered to the instance.
	/// </summary>
	eRegistered = 2,

	/// <summary>
	/// No reboot is required for the instance.
	/// </summary>
	eNoRebootRequired = 4,

	/// <summary>
	/// No errors were reported for the instance.
	/// </summary>
	eNoErrors = 8,

	/// <summary>
	/// The instance represents a complete install.
	/// </summary>
	eComplete = MAXUINT,
};

[KirillOsenkov]

so I'm guessing 4294967295 represents "complete install"

[heaths]

Yes. Honestly, I kinda regret ever putting this in the output. The idea was that as the enum above expands, it's an "escape hatch" solution. And that enum has expanded e.g., eNoErrors, though that was long ago.

vswhere is merely a client for the ISetupConfiguration COM server, and while I doubt the enum will change anytime soon, it could. Documenting the fields themselves may not be great, but maybe a link to the latest version of the enum? The help output would need a new section on partial outputs.

@mjcavallari-zz @tydunkel thoughts?

[tydunkel]

It does make sense to document these in some way, and I'm fine with any approach. I think just linking to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.visualstudio.setup.configuration.instancestate makes sense so we don't need to keep this doc in-sync. A shorthand for complete would be useful in the docs, too, and that won't change.

[heaths]

I would suggest an aka.ms alias pointing to the non-locale-specific link mainly because, if that line wraps, you can't Ctrl+Click on it in Windows terminal. aka link is less likely to wrap. Also, I've watched our docs change too many times over the years and break URLs. My old blog (now /setup) is littered with the remains of msdn and msdn2, for example.