problem with bitcoin: URIs and command-line arguments (initial client startup) #2859

I'm using command-line arguments to supply parameters to bitcoin-qt.exe during startup and one of the arguments is -txindex.

Now when I start the client via clicking a bitcoin: URI (when the client is not running already), it will not pass ANY of my normal command-line arguments and just the URI, which leads (in this case) to the message that I need to reindex to change -txindex state, because of the missing -txindex. I can think of other arguments leading to unwanted or strange behaviour.

Any ideas how we could handle the "client is started via bitcoin: URI"?

I think the best we can do is recommend that people either:

a) start up Bitcoin-Qt with the right arguments before clicking a bitcoin: URI and/or b) Prefer to put options in a bitcoin.conf file rather than specifying them on the command line

@gavinandresen Do you think a small dialog box (with the possibility to cancel startup), giving users the hint, that it's wise to start the client before using bitcoin: URIs would be worth to add to Bitcoin-Qt?

@Diapolo : No. The number of users who modify their shortcut to add command-line arguments is vanishingly small; bothering EVERY user with another dialog box for that tiny minority is the wrong thing to do.

I'm not sure about that guess, at least Windows users are more familiar with adding stuff to a shortcut than working with a bitcoin.conf IMHO. That box should only show up, when the client is initially started via clicking a bitcoin: URI and can perhaps be restricted to Windows.

There is no clean way currently to move command-line stuff to the .conf, so I was thinking about a solution which stores the last used command-line in our QSettings and uses this, if we detect a startup via clicking an URI...

I agree with @gavinandresen. Especially now that it is possible to change the data directory without passing a command line argument, it should not be needed to pass anything on the command line. Everything can be set either in the options dialog or, if not, in bitcoin.conf.

Closing as non-issue then.