OpenVPN / OpenVPN/openvpn-gui

Improve user experience with command line params

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#172 3 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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bug
Dominant language
C
Stars
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Forks
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Description

Regarding the param "--silent_connection" to openvpn-gui.exe, the help says:

--silent_connection		: 1=Do not show the status dialog while connecting or non-critical warnings at startup.

I guess that most users like me think that you have to use "--silent_connection", when actually you have to use "--silent_connection 1". Took me a while to figure this out, especially as the error message was misleading (didn't think of a parameter missing to a parameter).

Options error: Unrecognized option or missing parameter(s): --silent_connection
Use openvpn-gui --help for more info.

IMHO "--silent_connection" (without explicitly using "1") should be sufficient and use "1" as its default value. This style is used in every other tool I know, so for a better user experience, it should additionally be possible to leave out the following "1". Same goes for other comparable params.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the command-line parsing and help text for --silent_connection and the other comparable parameters. Check how a missing value is handled, then verify the intended flag behavior, help output, and error message with representative openvpn-gui.exe invocations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
cli, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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