Support query parameters (and hash) in CLI paths

[brettz9]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I am interested in having my scripts respond to arguments supplied by the calling file, rather than for the application as a whole (i.e., checking the likes of new URL(import.meta.url).searchParams.get('someParam') rather than process.argv).

This works well when a file imports another. In polyglot files too, it works to get the query string and hash in the browser (Chrome or Firefox at least) no matter whether the import originates in HTML or in JavaScript.

But I get a MODULE_NOT_FOUND error when trying the likes of:

node --experimental-modules  index.mjs?someParam=1

...apparently as it is looking for a file here rather than a (portion of) a URL.

Describe the solution you'd like

Allow the supplied file to be treated as a URL at least as far as the query string and any hash.

Describe alternatives you've considered

It duplicates effort to add special process.argv handling (and it could interfere if the same file is used in an application which has a different root file yet checks process.argv as well as import.meta.url).

Thanks!

[bnoordhuis]

That's pretty much impossible to implement even if it was a good idea because ? is a valid path character on UNIX systems. E.g. index.mjs?file=home.mjs is a legal filename.

You might counter that no one in their right mind would name a file that way but tools that auto-generate files surely can and probably will.

[jasnell]

The only possible way to handle this would be to require that such input be a proper file:// URL with appropriate escaping for special characters that happen to be in the filename, e.g.

node --experimental-modules file:///path/to/my/index%3f.mjs?someParam=1

This is also just a little bit problematic given that file: is a valid directory name on some systems but it's exceedingly unlikely to be an issue in practice.

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