Hierarchical argv overrides clobber entire objects

[mhart]

Here's a simple test case to illustrate what I mean.

test.json:

{
  "database": {
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 3000
  }
}

test.js:

nconf = require('nconf')

nconf.argv().file({file: 'test.json'})

console.log(nconf.get('database'))

Then run using:

$ node test
{ host: 'localhost', port: 3000 }
$ node test --database:port 8080
{ port: 8080 }

As you can see, the entire database config object is getting clobbered when just one property is overridden. I would have expected just the single property to change/merge.

Is there another way to achieve this?

[mhart]

Indeed, this seems to be inconsistent with the following:

nconf = require('nconf')

nconf.argv().file({file: 'test.json'})

console.log(nconf.get('database:host'))
console.log(nconf.get('database:port'))

Yields:

$ node test
localhost
3000
$ node test --database:port 8080
localhost
8080

Which does not seem to match with the clobbering behaviour above (although it does match what I expected).

Note: I want to pass the config objects (ie, database) around, as opposed to nconf itself, so I'd prefer not to have to use the colon syntax everywhere

[jfhbrook]

I agree that doesn't seem right. It's probably short-circuiting on objects instead of continuing down the hierarchy, which makes sense given that this is a special case.