From 2cfd60ff20c063d28395e756142dd53e173b6cae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: frstrtr <frstrtr@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:49:37 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] ci(release): fix false-red btc-Windows --help smoke on
 PowerShell

The Windows smoke step piped a native command straight into
Select-Object -First 5. --help writes usage to stderr; the -First 5
truncation closes the pipe early, so PowerShell raises a
NativeCommandError and the step exits 1 even though the binary printed
correct usage (build succeeded, link succeeded). Buffer the output into
a variable first (exe runs to completion, no broken pipe), then
Select-Object on the array, and exit 0 to match the Linux/macOS lanes,
which already use || true. Smoke is a liveness check, not a gate.
---
 .github/workflows/release.yml | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 440c04936..85414efe6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -549,7 +549,12 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.presence.outputs.exists == '1'
         run: |
           Copy-Item "${env:GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/secp256k1/bin/libsecp256k1-6.dll" build_ci/src/c2pool/Release/
-          build_ci/src/c2pool/Release/c2pool-${{ matrix.coin }}.exe --help 2>&1 | Select-Object -First 5
+          $ErrorActionPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
+          # --help writes usage to stderr; buffer first so Select-Object truncation
+          # cannot break the pipe and surface a NativeCommandError (false red).
+          $out = & build_ci/src/c2pool/Release/c2pool-${{ matrix.coin }}.exe --help 2>&1
+          $out | Select-Object -First 5 | Write-Host
+          exit 0
 
       - name: Package
         if: steps.presence.outputs.exists == '1'