Refactored the Pandoc process setup and improved the executable path handling.

app/MindWork AI Studio/Tools/Pandoc.cs

@@ -23,6 +23,29 @@ public static partial class Pandoc
     private static readonly Version MINIMUM_REQUIRED_VERSION = new (3, 7);
     private static readonly Version FALLBACK_VERSION = new (3, 7, 0, 2);
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Prepares a ProcessStartInfo for running pandoc with the given parameters.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Any local installation of pandoc will be preferred over the system-wide installation.
+    /// </remarks>
+    /// <param name="rustService">The global rust service to access file system and data dir.</param>
+    /// <param name="inputFile">The input file to convert.</param>
+    /// <param name="outputFile">The output file to write the converted content to.</param>
+    /// <param name="inputFormat">The format of the input file (e.g., markdown, html, etc.).</param>
+    /// <param name="outputFormat">The format of the output file (e.g., pdf, docx, etc.).</param>
+    /// <param name="additionalArgs">Additional arguments to pass to the pandoc command (optional).</param>
+    /// <returns>The ProcessStartInfo object configured to run pandoc with the specified parameters.</returns>
+    public static async Task<ProcessStartInfo> PreparePandocProcess(RustService rustService, string inputFile, string outputFile, string inputFormat, string outputFormat, string? additionalArgs = null) => new()
+    {
+        FileName = await PandocExecutablePath(rustService),
+        Arguments = $"{inputFile} -f {inputFormat} -t {outputFormat} {additionalArgs ?? string.Empty} -o {outputFile}",
+        RedirectStandardOutput = true,
+        RedirectStandardError = true,
+        UseShellExecute = false,
+        CreateNoWindow = true
+    };
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Checks if pandoc is available on the system and can be started as a process or is present in AI Studio's data dir.
     /// </summary>
@@ -31,20 +54,11 @@ public static partial class Pandoc
     /// <returns>True, if pandoc is available and the minimum required version is met, else false.</returns>
     public static async Task<bool> CheckAvailabilityAsync(RustService rustService, bool showMessages = true)
     {
-        var installDir = await GetPandocDataFolder(rustService);
-        if (HasPandoc(installDir))
-            return true;
-        
         try
         {
-            var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
+            var startInfo = await PreparePandocProcess(rustService, string.Empty, string.Empty, string.Empty, string.Empty);
-            {
+            startInfo.Arguments = "--version";
-                FileName = PandocExecutableName,
+            
-                Arguments = "--version",
-                RedirectStandardOutput = true,
-                UseShellExecute = false,
-                CreateNoWindow = true
-            };
             using var process = Process.Start(startInfo);
             if (process == null)
             {
@@ -103,27 +117,6 @@ public static partial class Pandoc
         }
     }
 
-    private static bool HasPandoc(string pandocDirectory)
-    {
-        try
-        {
-            var subdirectories = Directory.GetDirectories(pandocDirectory);
-            foreach (var subdirectory in subdirectories)
-            {
-                var pandocPath = Path.Combine(subdirectory, PandocExecutableName);
-                if (File.Exists(pandocPath))
-                    return true;
-            }
-        
-            return false;
-        }
-        catch (Exception ex)
-        {
-            LOG.LogInformation("Pandoc is not installed in the data directory and might have thrown and error:  {0}", ex.Message);
-            return false;
-        }
-    }
-
     /// <summary>
     /// Automatically decompresses the latest pandoc archive into AiStudio's data directory
     /// </summary>
@@ -302,6 +295,45 @@ public static partial class Pandoc
     /// </summary>
     private static string PandocExecutableName => CPU_ARCHITECTURE is RID.WIN_ARM64 or RID.WIN_X64 ? "pandoc.exe" : "pandoc";
     
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Returns the path to the pandoc executable.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// Any local installation of pandoc will be preferred over the system-wide installation.
+    /// When a local installation is found, its absolute path will be returned. In case no local
+    /// installation is found, the name of the pandoc executable will be returned.
+    /// </remarks>
+    /// <param name="rustService">Global rust service to access file system and data dir.</param>
+    /// <returns>Path to the pandoc executable.</returns>
+    private static async Task<string> PandocExecutablePath(RustService rustService)
+    {
+        //
+        // First, we try to find the pandoc executable in the data directory.
+        // Any local installation should be preferred over the system-wide installation.
+        //
+        var localInstallationRootDirectory = await GetPandocDataFolder(rustService);
+        try
+        {
+            var executableName = PandocExecutableName;
+            var subdirectories = Directory.GetDirectories(localInstallationRootDirectory);
+            foreach (var subdirectory in subdirectories)
+            {
+                var pandocPath = Path.Combine(subdirectory, executableName);
+                if (File.Exists(pandocPath))
+                    return pandocPath;
+            }
+        }
+        catch
+        {
+            // ignored
+        }
+        
+        //
+        // When no local installation was found, we assume that the pandoc executable is in the system PATH.
+        //
+        return PandocExecutableName;
+    }
+
     private static async Task<string> GetPandocDataFolder(RustService rustService) => Path.Join(await rustService.GetDataDirectory(), "pandoc");
     
     [GeneratedRegex(@"pandoc(?:\.exe)?\s*([0-9]+\.[0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?(?:\.[0-9]+)?)")]