Cypress: Array in environment variables CYPRESS_BLACKLIST_HOSTS, CYPRESS_testFiles not handled correctly

[tobiashinz]

Current behavior:

Setting multiple hosts via the environment variable CYPRESS_BLACKLIST_HOSTS as an array leads to them not picked up corretly.

Example:

export CYPRESS_BLACKLIST_HOSTS=["www.google-analytics.com","*.hotjar.com"]

The environment variable is always handled as a string

Desired behavior:

The desired behavior is to analyze if an array was provided and handled each item separately.

Test code to reproduce

export CYPRESS_BLACKLIST_HOSTS=["www.google-analytics.com","*.hotjar.com"]

cypress open

Versions

Node.js Version 12.8.1
Cypress Version 4.1.0

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Bug by Unito

[jennifer-shehane]

Can confirm, this is resolved as a string when passed as an array in via environment variables.

CYPRESS_BLACKLIST_HOSTS=["www.google-analytics.com","*.hotjar.com"] cypress open

This is the only configuration value passable via CYPRESS_ that accepts a non string or number, so I imagine we're just not handling it at all.

[JosiahOne]

Looks like there is at least one other array-based CYPRESS_ env var that behaves incorrectly: CYPRESS_testFiles.

CYPRESS_testFiles="[\"**/196*\", \"**/475*\", \"**/476*\"]" npx cypress open

[dmoini]

Would I be able to work on this issue? If so I had a few questions since I am new at contributing open source.
1) Where should I look in the codebase to address this issue, specifically where environment variables are parsed?
2) How would I be able to debug and test my changes locally?

[jennifer-shehane]

@dmoini Check out our contributing doc for general guidance on running changes and tests locally. Generally, part of the work to parse env vars prefixed with CYPRESS_ is done in our config.js here https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress/blob/develop/packages/server/lib/config.js#L930:L930

[cypress-bot[bot]]

The code for this is done in cypress-io/cypress#8151, but has yet to be released.
We'll update this issue and reference the changelog when it's released.

[cypress-bot[bot]]

Released in 5.0.0.

This comment thread has been locked. If you are still experiencing this issue after upgrading to
Cypress v5.0.0, please open a new issue.