MEGATHREAD: Commandline Args Follow-Up Work

Reference

• Original issue: #607
• Original Spec (Added in #3495)
• Initial Implementation PR: #4023
• UsingCommandlineArguments.md

Untriaged Bugs/Features

• #4619 wt does not handle newlines properly

1.0 Bugs

• #4618 wt command-line cannot consistently parse more than one argument
• #4602 WT -? -help --help window should include a link to the command line arguments
• #4571 wt.exe /d doesn't work if the directory path ends in '' and is quoted

The Help Dialog

• #4612 Help windows contain different help messages dependent of the way how help is triggered.
• The Help Dialog should have copy-pasteable text
• #4134

Post 1.0 features

• #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.

• #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
• #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 #4472
• #6183 Add support for -t,--title title to set the startingTitle of a new terminal session (add to terminal_parameters)
• #6298 wt.exe should support -%,--percent for setting a pane's size on the commandline
• #6580 Maybe add support for move-focus subcommand
• Add command-line option start terminal in focus mode (after/during #7825)
• Set tab color in command line #8075

2.0 Bugs

• 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 #10070
• #12191

Backlog

• #5462 Add support for open-settings
• #5465 Add support for --file,-f configuration_file for reading a list of commands from a file
• Add command-line option start terminal minimized #7374
• Add support for send-input subcommand #9368
• Allow for ExecuteCommandline actions to be called straight from the commandline #9994
• Command line spec/override for closeOnExit #10019
• #4637 Other options for overriding profile starting directory
• #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.
  • #7258 wt --help should print text to terminal, instead of popping open a modal dialog
  • #11616
  • #5463 Add support for list-profiles
• #15496
• #16008

Discussion

• #4611 -H and -V parameters shouldn't be case-sensitive
• #4570 ; is an annoying separator character
• #4601 long form arguments (e.g. --profile) have poor discoverability
• Windows commandline args are usually /fooBar but ours are --fooBar and that's weird
• #5801 Add support for launching fullscreen?
• #19818

Start with the linked Original Spec and UsingCommandlineArguments.md, then review the unchecked entries and their referenced issues to identify one bounded task. This megathread names no implementation file, test, or single completion criterion, so the work is done only after a specific follow-up is selected and its behavior is defined.