Any reason why --install-isolated-web-app-from-file is not comma separated list?

[guest271314]

The last time I checked the --install-isolated-web-app-from-file command line switch only installs a single IWA from file. Any reason the value is not a comma separated list?

[Reilly Grant]

I believe we actually intend to remove these flags as the current functionality is supported via chrome://web-app-internals/. For automated installation of IWAs, we're considering adding DevTools Protocol commands for it.

Reilly Grant | Software Engineer | rei...@chromium.org | Google Chrome

On Sat, Mar 8, 2025 at 7:38 AM guest271314 <guest...@gmail.com> wrote:

The last time I checked the --install-isolated-web-app-from-file command line switch only installs a single IWA from file. Any reason the value is not a comma separated list?

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[guest271314]

> I believe we actually intend to remove these flags as the current functionality is supported via chrome://web-app-internals/. For automated installation of IWAs, we're considering adding DevTools Protocol commands for it.

I would suggest to *not* remove those flags. It's simpler to just use
a shell script to lauch chrome with flags, similar to the capability
for Web extensions. It is tedious to load load all of these extensions
in Developer Mode on chrome://extensions.

Similarly, it's simpler to just build the IWA before chrome is
lanuched, then point to the .swbn in the shell script that launches
chrome

```
--load-extension=/home/user/native-messaging-file-writer,/home/user/native-messaging-txiki.js,/home/user/native-messaging-nodejs,/home/user/native-messaging-deno,/home/user/native-messaging-bun,/home/user/native-messaging-quickjs,/home/user/native-messaging-llrt,/home/user/native-messaging-rust,/home/user/native-messaging-webassembly,/home/user/native-messaging-c,/home/user/native-messaging-cpp,/home/user/native-messaging-python,/home/user/native-messaging-bash,/home/user/native-messaging-d8,/home/user/native-messaging-spidermonkey,/home/user/native-messaging-typescript,/home/user/capture_system_audio,/home/user/devtools_panel_formatter,/home/user/isolated-web-app-utilities,/home/user/no-copilot-ad-main,/home/user/no-so-banner,/home/user/offscreen-audio-main,/home/user/remove_csp,/home/user/tab,/home/user/telnet-client/direct-sockets,/home/user/native-messaging-piper,/home/user/fetch-local-file
\
```

[guest271314]

> we're considering adding DevTools Protocol commands for it.

So now developers have to figure out a way to load multiple IWA programmatically when IWA maintains remove that capability that currently exists with flags?

I didn't know the flag was slated for *removal*.

I still didn't get the why *why* there can't be comma-separated list like --load-extension, --unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure, et al.