Ionic-cli: Android builds: Failure when providing Cordova/Gradle arguments

[zarko-tg]

Cannot build for Android when providing additional arguments (Cordova/Gradle). Problem that came with [email protected]

$ ionic cordova build android --verbose --device --prod --release -- --gradleArg=-PcdvBuildMultipleApks=true
[DEBUG] !!! ERROR ENCOUNTERED !!!
TypeError: Cannot read property 'private' of undefined
[DEBUG] TypeError: Cannot read property 'private' of undefined
            at inputs.filter (/Users/zarko/app/node_modules/@ionic/cli-utils/dist/lib/command/command.js:89:31)
            at Array.filter (native)
            at BuildCommand.getCleanInputsForTelemetry (/Users/zarko/app/node_modules/@ionic/cli-utils/dist/lib/command/command.js:88:18)
            at BuildCommand.<anonymous> (/Users/zarko/app/node_modules/@ionic/cli-utils/dist/lib/command/command.js:63:46)
            at next (native)
            at fulfilled (/Users/zarko/app/node_modules/@ionic/cli-utils/dist/lib/command/command.js:4:58)

Remove everything after "--release" in the command and everything's fine.

global packages:

@ionic/cli-utils : 1.0.0
Cordova CLI      : 6.5.0 
Ionic CLI        : 3.0.0

local packages:

@ionic/app-scripts              : 1.3.7
@ionic/cli-plugin-cordova       : 1.0.0
@ionic/cli-plugin-ionic-angular : 1.0.0
Ionic Framework                 : ionic-angular 3.2.0

System:

Node       : v6.10.3
OS         : macOS Sierra
Xcode      : Xcode 8.3.2 Build version 8E2002 
ios-deploy : 1.9.1 
ios-sim    : 5.0.13

[imhoffd]

@zarko-tg Interesting. So there was a bug related to not being able to handle the extra options. But then I realized we're going to have to do something a bit... odd. The -- separator is a special symbol that, by convention, tells the program to stop parsing args afterwards. In Cordova's case, as they show in their docs, arguments after -- (when using the cordova) get passed onto Cordova Android, which then continues to parse them, looking for --gradleArgs, which it then finally passes to gradle, as you know.

We are _wrapping_ this yet further by slapping ionic at the front of it. But it's actually more complicated than just prepending a word. We have our own set of options, such as --prod and the livereload options for run and emulate.

To pass options _unparsed_ to Cordova, one would do:
ionic cordova build ios -- --cordovaOpt=...
which the Ionic CLI would transform to ultimately run:
cordova build ios --cordovaOpt=...

But, to mark unparsed options for Cordova Android, one must first also mark unparsed options for Cordova. So we get a double --:

ionic cordova build android -- --cordovaOpt=... -- --gradleArg=...
which the Ionic CLI would transform to ultimately run:
cordova build android --cordovaOpt=... -- --gradleArg=...

To run the command you want to run at the top of your issue, one would do this:
ionic cordova build android --verbose --device --prod --release -- -- --gradleArg=-PcdvBuildMultipleApks=true
which the Ionic CLI would transform to ultimately run:
cordova build android --device --release -- --gradleArg=-PcdvBuildMultipleApks=true

This is what happens when you wrap several tools into one! 😄 Very confusing. But that's sort of the nature of the beast. The Cordova docs I linked to show alternative ways to configure gradle.

But we're still interested in having it work for our users solely via command line. I've just pushed a fix, would you be willing to give it a try?

npm i -g ionic@canary

[zarko-tg]

I can confirm the command with "-- --" works as expected with ionic@canary.

[zarko-tg]

https://github.com/driftyco/ionic-cli/issues/2354 for iOS seems similar to this.