--start-url option does not accept array anymore

[rensbaardman]

Is this a feature request or a bug?

bug

What is the current behavior?

When running

web-ext run --start-url example.com foobar.com

it does not run with the two urls as start urls, but says

Run the extension

Options:
   [...]
  --start-url, -u, --url           Launch firefox at specified page      [array]
   [...]

This command does not take any arguments

Notice that the command options docs (still) specifies an array as argument to --start-url, suggesting this should be possible. (see this line in the src)

What is the expected or desired behavior?

Prior to v3.1.0 (I think), this worked as expected: executing the command would run the extension in Firefox, starting with the two (or more) urls as open tabs.

The problem is probably the same regression as mentioned in #1652. There was also a comment explicitly mentioning this case. Note that the [array] specification in the cli options, contradicts an earlier comment that "The old behavior was not documented".

I suggest a similar fix as in that case, since disabling array support (requiring --start-url example.com --start-url foobar.com) would technically be a breaking change.

Else, the cli options man page should be changed (fine with me too if the solution would be too cumbersome to implement).

Version information (for bug reports)

• Firefox version: 69.0
• Your OS and version: macOS 10.11.6
• Paste the output of these commands:

node --version && npm --version && web-ext --version

v10.16.0
6.11.3
3.1.1

[Rob--W]

--start-url / -u is documented to take only one parameter:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/web-ext_command_reference#--start-url

This is expected behavior, but I'm keeping the issue open until we have improved the output of web-ext run --help.

[rensbaardman]

I just came across #797, which makes a valid point: if you can only set multiple URLs by adding multiple flags, it is not possible to do so with an environment variable. So this requires the ability to pass an array.

I am willing to try come up with a PR (which depends on fixing this yargs issue first: yargs/yargs#821, and then fixing this one would be nice too: yargs/yargs#1098). I can then also update the MDN docs. I might need some guidance later on, since I haven't looked at the code yet.

Does that work for you?

[Rob--W]

It's not clear what you're asking - are you going to fix the output of --help, or are you going to re-introduce support for multiple URLs in --start-url?

I have a very small preference for supporting exactly one value per --start-url / -u parameter, like this:

web-ext run -u example.com -u example.com/page2

.. but if yargs is fixed and we can fully rely on yargs for consistent behavior without too many hacks, then I wouldn't be against the following (previous behavior):

web-ext run -u example.com example.com/page2

[rensbaardman]

Sorry for the confusion. My proposal is to accept arrays, so the previous behaviour (your second example). This would allow setting multiple URLs via environment variables.

I will try to tackle the yargs issues first. Depending on whether that is successful / easy, I will come back here with either a solution that accepts arrays, or just improving the --help output. Is that okay?

[Rob--W]

Either approach is fine to me.

[Rob--W]

We're going to publish a major version bump, because Node 8 is almost EOL, and we want to bump the version requirement to Node 10+. This issue is one of the issues that may result in backwards-incompatible behavior, so if you plan to submit a PR, please do so.