MEGATHREAD: Commandline Args Follow-Up Work

[zadjii-msft]

Reference

• Original issue: Feature Request: wt.exe supports command line arguments (profile, command, directory, etc.) #607
• Original Spec (Added in Add spec for adding commandline arguments to wt.exe #3495)
• Initial Implementation PR: Add support for commandline args to wt.exe #4023
• UsingCommandlineArguments.md

Untriaged Bugs/Features

• wt does not handle newlines properly #4619 wt does not handle newlines properly

1.0 Bugs

• wt command-line cannot consistently parse more than one argument #4618 wt command-line cannot consistently parse more than one argument
• WT -? -help --help window should include a link to the command line arguments #4602 WT -? -help --help window should include a link to the command line arguments
• Calling wt from cmd for working directory "C:\" causes an error #4571 wt.exe /d doesn't work if the directory path ends in '' and is quoted

The Help Dialog

• [wt.exe] Help windows are inconsistent #4612 Help windows contain different help messages dependent of the way how help is triggered.
• The Help Dialog should have copy-pasteable text
• Polish Commandline Help MessageBox to be at least like, but at best better than, msiexec /? #4134

Post 1.0 features

• initialPosition (and others) should be available as commandline args #4620 Add support for initialPosition and others
  • From the spec:

  When parsing a new-tab command, configure the TerminalApp::AppLogic to
  set some initial state about itself, to handle the new-tab arguments
  [--initialPosition, --maximized, --initialRows, --initialCols]. Only
  set this state for the first new-tab parsed. These settings will overwrite
  the corresponding global properties on launch.

• Add support for focus-pane subcommand #5464 Add support for focus-pane
• Add support for a profile to launch multiple panes using wt commands
• Add support for running a set of wt commands on startup
• Add support for "short" command name aliases (like sp for split-pane) #5466 Add support for "short" command name aliases (like sp for split-pane)
• Add support for running commands on an existing wt window (e.g. wt -s 0 split-pane opens a pane in the current window)
  • Add support for wt.exe to run commands in an existing Terminal Window Add support for wt.exe to run commands in an existing Terminal Window #4472
• set tabTitle in commandline #6183 Add support for -t,--title title to set the startingTitle of a new terminal session (add to terminal_parameters)
• wt.exe should support -%,--percent for setting a pane's size on the commandline #6298 wt.exe should support -%,--percent for setting a pane's size on the commandline
• Maybe add support for move-focus subcommand #6580 Maybe add support for move-focus subcommand
• Add command-line option start terminal in focus mode (after/during focusMode option for launchMode setting #7825)
• Set tab color in command line Set tab color in command line  #8075

2.0 Bugs

• Fails to launch maximized/fullscreen and the given profile Fails to launch maximized/fullscreen and the given profile #7318
• The nextTab and prevTab actions do not work correctly when initiated via wt.exe or the command palette The nextTab and prevTab actions do not work correctly when initiated via wt.exe or the command palette #10070
• The Terminal needs a commandline argument to open the window elevated #12191

Backlog

• Add support for open-settings subcommand #5462 Add support for open-settings
• Add support for --file,-f configuration_file for reading a list of commands from a file #5465 Add support for --file,-f configuration_file for reading a list of commands from a file
• Add command-line option start terminal minimized Add command-line option start terminal minimized #7374
• Add support for send-input subcommand Add support for send-input subcommand #9368
• Allow for ExecuteCommandline actions to be called straight from the commandline Allow for ExecuteCommandline actions to be called straight from the commandline #9994
• Command line spec/override for closeOnExit Command line spec/override for closeOnExit #10019
• Other options for overriding profile starting directory #4637 Other options for overriding profile starting directory
• [wt.exe] Add support for appending a commandline to a profile's commandline  #5528 Add support for appending a commandline to a profile's commandline
• WT probably needs a CLI exe to interact with the Terminal via the command line.
  • wt --help should print text to terminal, instead of popping open a modal dialog ("Add a CLI executable for interacting with WT") #7258 wt --help should print text to terminal, instead of popping open a modal dialog
  • Add a CLI executable for interacting with WT (wtcli.exe or something) #11616
  • Add support for list-profiles subcommand #5463 Add support for list-profiles
• Terminal preview does not accept environment variables from parent process #15496
• wt.exe should accept env vars on the commandline #16008

Discussion

• [wt.exe] -H and -V parameters shouldn't be case-sensitive #4611 -H and -V parameters shouldn't be case-sensitive
• Documentation: terminal uses ; for separating subcommands #4570 ; is an annoying separator character
• Discussion: commandline arguments in v0.9 are not user-friendly or readable? #4601 long form arguments (e.g. --profile) have poor discoverability
• Windows commandline args are usually /fooBar but ours are --fooBar and that's weird
• Fullscreen toggle commandline parameter #5801 Add support for launching fullscreen?

Other related discussion

• Pass commands to new wt instance. Is this already supported? Pass commands to new wt instance. Is this already supported? #4598
• Add support for wt.exe to run commands in the current Terminal Window Add support for wt.exe to run commands in the current Terminal Window #4656
• wt support run command in application wt support run command in application #4864
• Shouldn't help ( -h or --help) print to the console? Shouldn't help ( -h or --help) print to the console?  #4887

[DHowett-MSFT]

I've moved #4619, #4618 and and #4602 into the v1.0 milestone.

[Karl-WE]

for any new args please consider reading and support this feature request before it get's out of control / focus.
Reference #4601

[WSLUser]

@zadjii-msft Please add #5494 to the list to add -v, --version to the list of args. All other Windows apps (linux apps too, but different arg) allow viewing the version via CLI (even if we need it to simply open up the About page).

[Guiorgy]

Windows commandline args are usually /fooBar but ours are --fooBar and that's weird

Is there an open discussion for this, or is this only internal for now?

[zadjii-msft]

@Guiorgy I don't think there's a current nogoing discussion, but there's mot really any chance that we'll change this, considering that 1.0 has already shipped with --fooBar args.

As we discovered over in #4601 (comment), it turns out that /fooBar style params will actually secretly work as well, but we're not officially documenting that in case CLI11 ever changes that out from underneath us.

[Guiorgy]

@zadjii-msft Oh wow, it does work! 😃
Anyways, glad to hear that -- isn't going anywhere. Personally, I hope you officially support both at some point.

[rashil2000]

Sorry, I couldn't find any documentation, but are --height or --width options for launching new window planned/supported?

(Use case: a desktop shortcut for opening neovim in WT. I'd like that window to be larger than what I have normally set for the terminal in settings.json through the initialRows and initialCols options)

[honeylizard]

After opening a WLS profile (e.g. Ubuntu), is there anyway to pass Unix style commands?

Running wt.exe new-tab -p Ubuntu cd /example/path opens the tab, but the terminal shows the error

[error 0x80070002 when launching 'cd /example/path']

All the examples I've found so far show how to run Windows commands after a new-tab call, but nothing on unix/linux commands...

[htcfreek]

und so far show how to run Windows commands after a new-tab call, but nothing on unix/linux commands...

Same for me with PowerShell or other profiles. I opened the issue #16062 .