Arguments precedence

[jmendiara]

I've experimented that the prefedence for args parsing is (from low to hight)
Default -> File -> environment args -> command line -> api

Default is overwritten by File, File by Environment args...

I.e, in this scenario

var convict = require('convict');

var conf = convict({
  ip: {
    doc: "The IP address to bind.",
    format: "ipaddress",
    default: "127.0.0.1",
    env: "IP_ADDRESS",
    arg: "ip"
  }
});
conf.loadFile('./config.json');

conf.set('ip', '134.234.32.56'); //or conf.load({ip:'134.234.32.56'});
conf.validate();

console.log(conf.get('ip'))

config.json

{
 "ip": "192.168.1.1"
}

$ IP_ADDRESS=10.95.78.123 node server.js --ip 0.0.0.0
# Output: 134.234.32.56
# Precedence: Default(127.0.0.1) -> File (192.168.1.1) -> Env(10.95.78.123) -> Arg(0.0.0.0) -> API (134.234.32.56)

Is this correct?
Maybe would you add this to the FAQ?

[madarche]

Hello @jmendiara, yes, the precedence order you are describing is how the code works. Documenting is useful and a PR would thus be welcome. I think that the place for this information is in a sub-section in its own right, for example "Precedence order", after "Coercion" I would say.

Finally documenting this behavior while at the same time enforcing it with unit test(s) would be an even more useful contribution!

Cheers

[madarche]

@zaach could you now mark this issue as closed please? Thanks!