Fix multi-byte UTF-8 decoding in Executable stream handling

[Copilot]

Fix multi-byte character decoding in Executable.waitForExitAsync

• Understand the issue: multi-byte UTF-8 characters can be split across chunk boundaries
• Identify solution: set stream encoding explicitly before attaching handlers
• Update waitForExitAsync to set encoding on stdout/stderr streams
• Update getProcessInfoByIdAsync to set encoding on stdout stream
• Create test cases for multi-byte character handling
• Run existing tests to ensure no regressions (238 tests passed)
• Validate the fix manually (multi-byte characters decoded correctly)
• Request code review and address feedback
• Run security checks (no issues found)
• Add patch changefile for node-core-library

Summary

This PR fixes an issue where Executable.waitForExitAsync and getProcessInfoByIdAsync incorrectly decoded multi-byte UTF-8 characters when they were split across chunk boundaries from stdout and stderr streams.

Root Cause

Calling chunk.toString(encoding) on individual buffer chunks produces invalid characters when multi-byte UTF-8 sequences are split across chunk boundaries.

Solution

Set the stream encoding explicitly using stream.setEncoding(encoding) before attaching data handlers. When encoding is set on a stream, Node.js automatically uses a StringDecoder internally which maintains state across chunks and properly handles character boundaries.

Changes Made

1. Updated waitForExitAsync: Set encoding on stdout/stderr streams before attaching handlers (when encoding is not 'buffer')
2. Updated getProcessInfoByIdAsync: Set encoding to 'utf8' on stdout stream
3. Added test case: Comprehensive test that writes multi-byte characters (Chinese + emoji) byte-by-byte to verify proper decoding
4. Added changefile: Patch changefile for @rushstack/node-core-library

Testing

• All 238 existing tests pass
• New test specifically validates multi-byte character handling
• Manual verification confirms proper decoding
• Security scan: No vulnerabilities detected

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[node-core-library] Executable: Incorrect decoding of multi-byte characters depending on buffering</issue_title>
<issue_description>## Summary
Executable.waitForExitAsync currently assumes that the raw chunks received from the stdout and stderr stream will always end at a character boundary, which is not required to be true when writing multi-byte characters.

Repro steps

inner.js

const { setTimeout } = require('node:timers/promises');

const unicodeString = "Hello, 世界"; // "Hello, World" in Chinese
const encoded = Buffer.from(unicodeString, 'utf8');
async function writeChars() {
    for (let i = 0; i < encoded.length; i++) {
        process.stdout.write(encoded.subarray(i, i + 1));
        await setTimeout(0); // wait for a single async tick
    }
}
writeChars();

outer.js

const child_process = require('child_process');

const decoder = new TextDecoder('utf-8');

let decodedOutput = '';
let byChunkOutput = [];
// Execute ./inner.js using Node.js and log the raw binary content of each chunk of stdout
const child = child_process.spawn('node', ['./inner.js'], {
    stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'inherit']
});
child.stdout.on('data', (chunk) => {
    console.log('Received chunk:', chunk);
    byChunkOutput.push(chunk.toString());
    decodedOutput += decoder.decode(chunk, { stream: true });
});
child.on('close', (code) => {
    console.log(`Child process exited with code ${code}`);
    decodedOutput += decoder.decode(); // flush the decoder
    console.log('Decoded output:', decodedOutput);
    console.log('By-chunk output:', byChunkOutput.join(''));
});

This prints:

Received chunk: <Buffer 48>
Received chunk: <Buffer 65>
Received chunk: <Buffer 6c>
Received chunk: <Buffer 6c>
Received chunk: <Buffer 6f>
Received chunk: <Buffer 2c>
Received chunk: <Buffer 20>
Received chunk: <Buffer e4>
Received chunk: <Buffer b8>
Received chunk: <Buffer 96>
Received chunk: <Buffer e7>
Received chunk: <Buffer 95>
Received chunk: <Buffer 8c>
Child process exited with code 0
Decoded output: Hello, 世界
By-chunk output: Hello, ������

Details

Executable needs to either concatenate, then decode, or use one of the multi-byte-aware stateful decoders (TextDecoder or the legacy string_decoder).

Standard questions

Please answer these questions to help us investigate your issue more quickly:

Question	Answer
Package name:	@rushstack/node-core-library
Package version?	5.19.1
Operating system?	Linux
Would you consider contributing a PR?	Yes
Node.js version (node -v)?	20.13.1
</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Please update Executable.waitForExitAsync (and any other Executable APIs that merge input from multiple chunks of unknown encoding) to explicitly set the stream encoding for stdout and stderr before attaching handlers.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are Copilot in this section)

David Michon (@dmichon-msft) Only an issue if we don't explicitly set the stream encoding to `utf-8`.

• Fixes [node-core-library] Executable: Incorrect decoding of multi-byte characters depending on buffering #5509

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[David Michon (dmichon-msft)]

Copilot This change needs a patch changefile for node-core-library.

[Ian Clanton-Thuon (iclanton)]

Copilot - Generate a changefile documenting this change. It should be a patch bump.

[Copilot]

Copilot - Generate a changefile documenting this change. It should be a patch bump.

Generated patch changefile documenting the multi-byte character fix in commit b3e7021.

Copilot This change needs a patch changefile for node-core-library.

Added patch changefile in commit b3e7021.