Repository: UKGovernmentBEIS/inspect_ai
Issue: Error with `setup` field in Sample
Root cause: Documentation Deficiency

I have a `/setup_task.sh` in the task container that I would like to run as the setup script for the sample, but I keep getting the following error:
`RuntimeError: Failed to execute setup script for sample: /setup_task.sh: line 1: setup_task.sh: command not found`

This is how I'm initializing the Sample:
```python 
Sample(
          id=task_id,
          input=record["objective"],
          metadata=metadata,
          files=files,
          sandbox=("docker", f"{task_assets}/compose.yaml"),
          setup=record["setup_script"] if record.get("setup_script") is not None else None
)
```

And the task json config has a `setup_script` field that looks like this:
`"setup_script": "/setup_task.sh"`

I've tried changing the this field to `"bash /setup_task.sh"` but I get the same error. If I run this script manually using `docker exec CONTAINER_NAME /setup_task.sh` or `docker exec CONTAINER_NAME bash /setup_task.sh`, then it works fine. I'm wondering what am I missing here? Thanks!

The setup script should be either the actual content of the script or a local (i.e. in the context of the Insepct process) file path to the script (the script is written into the container dynamically by the task loader, it's not executed based on a path).

Thanks for the clarification! However I'm still having issues with executing this script, here are the things I've tried:

- If I change the `setup` field to the local file path, the task eval run gets stuck, i.e. runs forever without actually starting the task execution, whereas the expected behaviour should be finishing right away
- Since this script also exists within the container, I've tried using `sandbox().exec(cmd=["bash", "/setup_task.sh"])` in a setup solver, but I still get the error: `Exception: Error setting up task: /setup_task.sh: line 1: setup_task.sh: command not found`
- Furthermore, I've tried using the `subprocess` module directly: `subprocess.run(["docker", "exec", "test_container", "bash", "/setup_task.sh"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, text=True)`, where I've specified the `container_name` to be `test_container`, and I still get the above error. But if I manually bring up the container with `docker compose` and run this code snippet outside of Inspect, then it works.

I'm wondering if there's an issue with `sandbox().exec()` when running a script? Because I've also noticed a similar issue in a different task where I'm trying to run a python script, the same command works when I run it manually via `docker exec` but fails with `sandbox().exec()`.

The script might need to be marked executable? Also, it looks like maybe it is running the script but encountering an error on line 1?

I am going to write some tests now to confirm that all is working as expected. 

Are you using a shebang at the top of the script: `#!/usr/bin/env bash`

Yes but it's just `#!/bin/bash`. I also just tried marking it as executable in the Dockerfile and rebuilt the image, didn't change anything.

Writing the tests did reveal a problem! Here is a PR that resolved the issue in my tests:

https://github.com/UKGovernmentBEIS/inspect_ai/pull/630

Basically needed to put `env` in front of the script so that it is executed the bash interpreter.

I think this may have worked initially because we were joining the commands and passing them to the shell. We stopped doing that a while ago and this may have regressed.

LMK how you fare with this.

Thanks for the quick update, but unfortunately I fear that the fix didn't work, I tried all 3 things mentioned above and they are showing the same behaviour, I've also updated the shebang to follow the format used in the documentation :(

Okay, but now in the form of a test you have a simple case that definitely works! You should with the test case and run that locally. Then start adding in stuff from your eval (there is likely some subtle thing that is amiss but it's hard to detect without building up from a simpler config). I am satisfied based on the test that the core mechanism works -- if you can send me a minimal reproducible example of a case that's failing I will make quick work of fixing it!

Thanks for the advice, I'll start trying things out with the test case. I attached the bare minimum for the task I'm having issue with ([self-reasoning.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/17235706/self-reasoning.zip)), you can navigate into this folder and run `inspect eval task.py --model MODEL_NAME`. The current code uses the `setup` field, and the expected behaviour is it will get stuck during the evaluation run. If you delete line 5 (the `setup_script` field) in `data/challenges.json`, and uncomment line 39 in `task.py` (`# setup(),`), it'll use the setup solver, and the expected behaviour is seeing the `command not found` error.  

Thanks again for all the help:)

@XkunW Has this issue been resolved on your end or are there additional changes we need to make in Inspect?

Sorry for the delay, I've been working on getting self-proliferation tasks ready for the past 2 weeks. I'm looking into this issue today, and I've managed to get the setup command working, but the behaviour is still incorrect. The setup command runs a script which is supposed to create a file to be used later, but the file wasn't created after setup. I'll look deeper into this and report back here soon with some updates.

There was a bug within the setup script, everything looks to be working fine now! Sorry for the trouble:)

Thanks for letting me know!