Crate stable_which 

Evaluate binary path stability and find stable PATH candidates.

This library analyzes binary paths, tags them with observed attributes (version manager, build output, ephemeral, shim, etc.), judges their Durability (whether a path can be pinned into a service definition), and ranks them to find the most suitable candidate for use in service registration, configuration files, or scripts.

Quick Start

use stable_which::{find_candidates, rank_candidates, ScoringPolicy};
use std::path::Path;

let mut candidates = find_candidates(Path::new("jj")).unwrap();
rank_candidates(&mut candidates, ScoringPolicy::SameBinary);
println!("Best: {}", candidates[0].path().display());

API layering

The public surface separates three concerns:

• find_candidates / find_candidates_with_path_env — discovery only, returns candidates in deterministic (PATH discovery) order.
• rank_candidates — sorts a candidate slice in place by a ScoringPolicy.
• resolve_stable_path — the convenience composition of find + rank that returns the single best candidate.

Structs

Candidate

A discovered location for a binary, with the observed PathTags that describe it.

Enums

Durability

Whether a path string keeps pointing at the same (logical) target across rebuild / upgrade / reboot.

Error

Errors that can be returned by find_candidates and related functions.

PathTag

Observed properties of a candidate path.

ScoringPolicy

Policy for ranking candidates returned by rank_candidates.

Functions

find_candidates

Discover all candidate locations for binary, searching the process PATH.

find_candidates_with_path_env

Discover all candidate locations for binary, using path_env as the PATH to search.

rank_candidates

Sort candidates in place by score descending, with PATH discovery order ascending as a deterministic tie-breaker.

resolve_stable_path

Resolve the single best candidate for binary under policy.