Can wails be used with cobra?

[mondy]

I want to use cobra to parse command line arguments.
The following is a partial rewrite of the code generated by default.
If you wails dev, it will start. However, if I double-click the output executable file from Explorer after doing wails build, it does not start. However, it can be started from the command line.

If you run the commented out run(nil, nil) in the main function instead of cmd.Execute() (without cobra), you can double-click on the built executable to start it.

Also, if I start it from an executable file on the command line, the window is displayed, but it exits immediately from the command line. Is it possible to continue to output stdout and stderr on the command line for post-build debugging?

package main

import (
	"embed"
	"log"

	"github.com/spf13/cobra"

	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2"
	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/logger"
	"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/options"
)

//go:embed frontend/src
var assets embed.FS

//go:embed build/appicon.png
var icon []byte

var cmd = cobra.Command{
	Run: run,
}

func run(_ *cobra.Command, _ []string) {

	// Create an instance of the app structure
	app := NewApp()

	// Create application with options
	err := wails.Run(&options.App{
		Title:      "test",
		Assets:     assets,
		LogLevel:   logger.DEBUG,
		OnStartup:  app.startup,
		OnDomReady: app.domReady,
		OnShutdown: app.shutdown,
		Bind: []interface{}{
			app,
		},
	})

	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
}

func main() {
	cmd.Execute()
	// run(nil, nil)
}

Environment

System
------
OS:             Windows 10 Home
Version:        2009 (Build: 19044)
ID:             21H2
Go Version:     go1.18
Platform:       windows
Architecture:   amd64

Dependency      Package Name    Status          Version
----------      ------------    ------          -------
WebView2        N/A             Installed       99.0.1150.39
npm             N/A             Installed       8.5.0
*upx            N/A             Installed       upx 3.96
*nsis           N/A             Available

[leaanthony]

wails build -debug might help

[stffabi]

See here for more information to achieve that: https://forum.golangbridge.org/t/no-println-output-with-go-build-ldflags-h-windowsgui/7633

This is Windows and build-flag specific and outside of the control of wails.

[mondy]

How does the executable generated by wails build work on Mac or Linux?
When executed from the command line, does it disappear from the command line as it does on Windows?
If not, it would be better to align the behavior across all operating systems.

Instead of using -H windowsgui, why not use the HideConsole function here?

[leaanthony]

Prod Windows builds will do that, just like any other Windows apps. If you build with -debug it'll compile it without that 👍

[stffabi]

Unfortunately that's how the Windows OS works and sometimes it's not possible to align the behaviour on all operating systems exactly.

Instead of using -H windowsgui, why not use the HideConsole function here?

The problem of dropping -H windowsgui and using HideConsole from the link is that one sees a flickering of the console window that shortly appears and then disappears. That's something which is not desired for a GUI application. So the build flag is the only option to make sure no console appears.
One could use the code from AttachConsole of that link (I haven't tried it), but that needs to be called in your code before Cobra outputs something, therefore Wails can't do that for you.

[mondy]

The problem of dropping -H windowsgui and using HideConsole from the link is that one sees a flickering of the console window that shortly appears and then disappears. That's something which is not desired for a GUI application. So the build flag is the only option to make sure no console appears.

I see. I found that I can't align the behavior across all operating systems. Thank you for the detailed explanation.
I would like to avoid Windows-specific code, so I will not use the standard output (help output).
Thanks for answering my question.