Feature Request: wt.exe supports command line arguments (profile, command, directory, etc.)

[fcharlie]

When Windows Terminal is installed on Windows 10, according to UWP package setting： https://github.com/microsoft/Terminal/blob/e37ba7a923427c9a874a6d5bdc27c80fe59db83c/src/cascadia/CascadiaPackage/Package.appxmanifest#L51
A ReparsePoint of type IO_REPARSE_TAG_APPEXECLINK is created in path %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe to start Windows Terminal. This is great, however, wt.exe should support richer command line arguments to enable third-party applications to open specific terminals.

[DHowett-MSFT]

It absolutely should. I'll mark this and use it as the backlog entry for supporting things like:

--profile
--command
--connection
--workdir (or whatever)

This'll help out with shortcut pinning, and let you do things like "I want to temporary launch WSL with my Powershell profile/keybindings (wt --profile Powershell -c wsl.exe)

[fcharlie]

@DHowett-MSFT Very Good. you can use CommandLineToArgvW convert Commandline to Argv.
If you need to parse Argv, the ParseArgv I wrote may be useful ：https://github.com/M2Team/Privexec/blob/master/include/parseargv.hpp

ParseArgv support subcommand

// https://github.com/M2Team/Privexec/blob/master/wsudo/wsudo.cc
// ParseArgv todo
int AppMode::ParseArgv(int argc, wchar_t **argv) {
  av::ParseArgv pa(argc, argv, true);
  pa.Add(L"version", av::no_argument, L'v')
      .Add(L"help", av::no_argument, L'h')
      .Add(L"user", av::required_argument, L'u')
      .Add(L"new-console", av::no_argument, L'n')
      .Add(L"hide", av::no_argument, L'H')
      .Add(L"wait", av::no_argument, L'w')
      .Add(L"verbose", av::no_argument, L'V')
      .Add(L"appx", av::required_argument, L'x')
      .Add(L"cwd", av::required_argument, L'c')
      .Add(L"env", av::required_argument, L'e')
      .Add(L"lpac", av::no_argument, L'L')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'a')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'M')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'U')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'A')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'S')
      .Add(L"", av::no_argument, L'T')
      .Add(L"appname", av::required_argument, 1001)
      .Add(L"disable-alias", av::no_argument, 1002);
  av::error_code ec;
  auto result = pa.Execute(
      [&](int val, const wchar_t *va, const wchar_t *) {
        switch (val) {
        case 'v':
          Version();
          exit(0);
        case 'h':
          Usage();
          exit(0);
        case 'u':
          if (!IsAppLevel(va, level)) {
            priv::Print(priv::fc::Red, L"wsudo unsupport user level: %s\n", va);
            return false;
          }
          break;
        case 'n':
          visible = priv::VisibleNewConsole;
          break;
        case 'H':
          visible = priv::VisibleHide;
          break;
        case 'w':
          wait = true;
          break;
        case 'V':
          verbose = true;
          break;
        case 'x':
          appx = va;
          break;
        case 'c':
          cwd = va;
          break;
        case 'e':
          envctx.Append(va);
          break;
        case 'L':
          lpac = true;
          break;
        case 'a':
          level = priv::ProcessAppContainer;
          break;
        case 'M':
          level = priv::ProcessMandatoryIntegrityControl;
          break;
        case 'U':
          level = priv::ProcessNoElevated;
          break;
        case 'A':
          level = priv::ProcessElevated;
          break;
        case 'S':
          level = priv::ProcessSystem;
          break;
        case 'T':
          level = priv::ProcessTrustedInstaller;
          break;
        case 1001:
          appname = va;
          break;
        case 1002:
          disablealias = true;
          break;
        default:
          break;
        }
        return true;
      },
      ec);
  if (!result) {
    priv::Print(priv::fc::Red, L"wsudo ParseArgv: %s\n", ec.message);
    return 1;
  }
  /// Copy TO
  args = pa.UnresolvedArgs();
  return 0;
}

[DHowett-MSFT]

Hey, that's pretty helpful.
Thanks!

[fcharlie]

@DHowett-MSFT
I created a commit and I don't know if such a change meets the requirements of the Windows Terminal team. see: https://github.com/fcharlie/Terminal/commit/e4cc84f1db77e7f268bbfc9dea9703ea3a5877a1

[Dabraleli]

I'm not sure if I should create new issue so I'll write my idea here.
What about additional option to select which way this request will be treated?
By this I mean, option to select should this command be executed in new window or in new tab.
Is it possible to implement same behavoir just like almost any multifile editor to execute command (similar to file) in separate tab, not window, if window already exists?

[isaacrlevin]

Just curious on status of this? Maybe a WIP PR?

[DHowett-MSFT]

The status of this issue appears to be “Spec Needed”, “Open”, “Issue-Feature” (it is a big enough request that it needs a specification). If there’s a WIP pull request, I am not seeing it mentioned.

[jessehouwing]

It would be nice when the --workdir option would default to the current working directory of the calling process. That way one can open wt from the explorer bar:

And from other tools such as "Open here" and 3rd part tools like the Tower Git Client.

[ParadoxGBB]

Part of this being able to launch WT via external processes/shortcuts should also make a constant way to reference and include the WT icon in shortcuts. I might have missed the best way to do it, but so far the only way I was able to get this working is to manually convert a file from C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_0.7.3451.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Images and include it in my app myself, which I imagine would encourage fragmentation and not a good thing.

[b1tninja]

In regards to the icon, there is likely no good way to do that. A wt launcher / profile editor maybe... In theory images could be loaded dynamically from a dll, but I imagine that becomes more trouble than it would be worth. When distributions are registered it would be kind of nice to have a shortcut of some sort created imo

[daveola]

The proposed ability to select profiles on the command line doesn't seem to be available yet (at least as of 2020/01) so I've hacked together a solution that let's you specify profile (and currently also the window size) using the current Windows Terminal found in the app store (or via github).

See:

http://davesource.com/Solutions/20200114.Windows-Terminal-command-line-options/
It wouldn't be too hard to add the ability to control other options from the command line as well.

[zadjii-msft]

@daveola For the record, this is in a PR currently over in #4023. It's actually nearly complete as well (*cough* @DHowett-MSFT)

[daveola]

Almost complete doesn't open a terminal on my computer.. :)

[ghost]

🎉This issue was addressed in #4023, which has now been successfully released as Windows Terminal Preview v0.9.433.0.:tada:

Handy links:

• Release Notes
• Store Download