Listen only on host IP

[n9]

Hacked solution for #1132.

[shakyShane]

@n9 please try the following

npm i -g browser-sync@2.25.0-alpha.0
browser-sync . --listen localhost

For backwards compatibility reasons, we actually cannot use the host option to acheive this, as it would break some people's existing setups.

This is mainly because in the past, host was not used (as you point out) to determine an address to bind to, but rather just as a way of changing the urls Browsersync displays to the user.

It was a big mistake, but now with the user base we have, every tiny change to any existing option causes some kind of breakage. I'm not prepared to do that again with host.

So, instead we're back to the old method of instead adding a new option, that I've called 'listen'. It's the only way we can acheive the goal without breaking existing users who are using host for other reasons.

The idea is that you'd only ever use the 'listen' option if you want to restrict the address being bound to - it will have the same effect as what was seen in the PR, but there turned out to be a lot more code to change.

So, to anyone that would like to see this option land in stable, can you call try version browser-sync@2.25.0-alpha.0 with the listen option set to some domain. (like localhost, or 127.0.0.1)

If I can get some feedback on whether it solves this problem, I'm happy to land it.

Thanks :)

[shakyShane]

Fixed with the new 'listen' option

npm i -g browser-sync@2.25.0
browser-sync . --listen localhost

[n9]

@shakyShane It listens on given IP address, however the free port detection seems broken. I want browser-sync to listen on 127.0.33.1 port 80. Port 80 is already used with 127.0.0.1. Browser-sync correctly listens on 127.0.33.1, however on port 81 instead.

[btjanaka]

Was this feature (--listen) ever documented? It does not show up here: https://www.browsersync.io/docs/options, but when I add listen: localhost in my BrowserSync config, it seems to work.