[bug] CLI cannot find app_dir in a subdirectory of current working directory with some commands (inconsistent)

[samkearney]

Describe the bug

Consider the following project layout:

src-tauri/
  tauri.conf.json
  <other Tauri sources>
src-web/
  package.json
  <other web sources>

It seems like the tauri CLI is written to be flexible to different project layouts such as this one. This is based on what I see primarily in https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/blob/dev/tooling/cli/src/helpers/app_paths.rs; in get_app_dir() there is some logic to walk subdirectories until finding a package.json file.

However, this doesn't work for some commands like dev and build because these commands set the current directory to src-tauri before running the code that relies on get_app_dir(). Then the get_app_dir() search starts in src-tauri instead of the working directory where the command was run.

The command info does not have this issue, because it does not change the current working directory before running.

I am not sure if layouts like this one are supposed to be supported, but I think the behavior of the CLI should at least be consistent across commands. I was going to open a PR for this, but I didn't know how much stuff in the CLI relies on the stateful changing of the current working directory...

Reproduction

1. Create a new project: npm create tauri-app@latest -- --beta (I chose: TypeScript/React/npm/no mobile)
2. Create a new directory inside the project called src-web, move all web-related sources into this directory
3. Run cargo tauri dev

Output:

    Running BeforeDevCommand (`npm run dev`)
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall open
npm ERR! path C:\git\iQ-Next\package.json
npm ERR! errno -4058
npm ERR! enoent Could not read package.json: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\git\tauri-test\package.json'
npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm ERR! enoent

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\samuel.kearney\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2024-07-29T18_03_00_167Z-debug-0.log
    Error The "beforeDevCommand" terminated with a non-zero status code.

Expected behavior

Dev server starts successfully

Full tauri info output

[✔] Environment
    - OS: Windows 10.0.19045 X64
    ✔ WebView2: 126.0.2592.113
    ✔ MSVC:
        - Visual Studio Professional 2019
        - Visual Studio Professional 2022
    ✔ rustc: 1.76.0 (07dca489a 2024-02-04)
    ✔ cargo: 1.76.0 (c84b36747 2024-01-18)
    ✔ rustup: 1.26.0 (5af9b9484 2023-04-05)
    ✔ Rust toolchain: stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc (environment override by RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN)
    - node: 18.18.0
    - npm: 9.8.1

[-] Packages
    - tauri [RUST]: 2.0.0-beta.25
    - tauri-build [RUST]: 2.0.0-beta.19
    - wry [RUST]: 0.41.0
    - tao [RUST]: 0.28.1
    - tauri-cli [RUST]: 2.0.0-beta.23
    - @tauri-apps/api [NPM]: 2.0.0-beta.16
    - @tauri-apps/cli [NPM]: 2.0.0-beta.23

[-] App
    - build-type: bundle
    - CSP: unset
    - frontendDist: ../dist
    - devUrl: http://localhost:1420/
    - framework: React
    - bundler: Vite

Stack trace

No response

Additional context

No response

[samkearney]

Update: I have added a proposed implementation in #10418.