--open false as a cli arg does not prevent browser from opening

[drobannx]

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Describe the bug

We are trying to use the cli argument --open false to prevent the browser from opening when starting up a server but it does not work. If we do add the config option in vite.config.ts it does work.

I tracked down the reason and this is due to a type mismatch when deciding whether to open the browser. Because the cli arg will always come through as a string 'false' will evaluate to truth in the block below.

if (options.open && !isRestart) {
  const path = typeof options.open === 'string' ? options.open : base;
  openBrowser(`${protocol}://${hostname}:${port}${path}`, true, server.config.logger);
}

My teammate and I did notice that depending on OS and browser default, the call in openBrowser will fail silently as well.

Reproduction

Any project that tries to use --open false as a cli arg.

System Info

• vite version: 2.0.5
• Operating System: OSx 10.15.7
• Node version: v14.14.0
• Package manager (npm/yarn/pnpm) and version: yarn v1.22.10

I am happy to open an MR if there is a specific direction to get this to work correctly. My first thought was just to check against 'false' if typeof options.open is a string and not even call openBrowser if that condition is met.

[github-actions]

Hello @drobannx. We totally like your proposal/feedback, welcome to send us a Pull Request for it. Please provide changelog/TypeScript/documentation/test cases if needed and make sure CI passed, we will review it soon. We appreciate your effort in advance and looking forward to your contribution!

[egoist]

Hi, use --no-open to set open to false.

Since Vite doesn't open the browser by default, I'm not sure why you use --open false in the first place.

[Shinigami92]

Yeah as @egoist already said, I think we should not add the possibility to allow --open false but just use --no-open if really needed.
And also by default it does not open 🤷

@matias-capeletto I will give you the last word on this an feel free to close both, the issue and PR if you share the same opinion with us

[patak-dev]

I agree that the extra complexity doesn't look good here. Now "true" and "false" are no longer valid paths after this change (no idea if that would ever be needed but I would prefer to avoid that branching)

@drobannx could you explain a bit more about your use case and why --no-open is not enough?

[drobannx]

@matias-capeletto - --no-open is perfect for our use case, we weren't aware it was an option.

When we ran the vite --help command, we didn't see --no-open but this works perfectly.

What are your thoughts on an MR to update the docs and/or change the --help output to show --no-open as an option and remove boolean as a type to --open

[Shinigami92]

@drobannx Would love to see (and review) a docu update
Could you create a PR for that? I think you don't need to create an extra issue for that, we will jump directly into the PR 🙂

I will close this issue for now 👍