Theia: [plugins] reference multiple plugin directories when using the cli argument

[sinamoeini]

Description

Is it possible to add another folder to --plugins? like a secondary folder? something like?

yarn theia start --plugins=local-dir:../../plugins:../../../another-plugins-folder

[vince-fugnitto]

From what I can tell from the source code only a single directory can be referenced using the cli option. If so, I think it might be a useful improvement to lookup from a list of directories instead.

Perhaps @eclipse-theia/plugin-system may have some more information.

[akosyakov]

We could improve to allow either to pass --plugins option multiple times or comma separated values.

You also can use an env variable instead right now which supports comma separated values: https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/blob/049fb524480292274131c0f888e82a9fbaa7878f/packages/plugin-ext/src/main/node/plugin-deployer-impl.ts#L92-L105

[sinamoeini]

I didn't now that there was a global variable. Now it make sense, a global plugins dir set through THEIA_DEFAULT_PLUGINS or THEIA_PLUGINS and a local specific to project in --plugins

[tsmaeder]

@akosyakov env variables make a lot of sense in container, where you don't have more than one installation of Theia. For me locally, I typically have multiple ones (dev tool and target). What I'm trying to say is I am +1 on adding multi-folder to the cli.

[sinamoeini]

I have another suggestion can separate the folders with ":" instead ","? To be consistent with PATH variable?

[benoitf]

hi, I don't think it might work for : as value can contain protocol/link like
local-dir:///tmp

if split is around : it will break

[tsmaeder]

Should be system path separator, not fixed ':'

[sinamoeini]

yes you are right. Forgot about local-dir

[akosyakov]

I think it should be:
yarn theia start --plugins=../../plugins --plugins../../../another-plugins-folder

without any separators