vc subcommand requires --http --http-address

[jshufro]

Description

The VC subcommand seems to have suddenly started requiring the flags --http and --http-address, when --help describes --http as defaulting to disabled.

Version

pulled sigp/lighthouse:latest from docker hub:

Lighthouse v5.1.1-2a3c709
BLS library: blst-portable
SHA256 hardware acceleration: true
Allocator: jemalloc
Profile: maxperf
Specs: mainnet (true), minimal (false), gnosis (true)

Present Behaviour

$ docker run --rm sigp/lighthouse lighthouse vc --datadir /var/lib/lighthouse --unencrypted-http-transport --builder-proposals --beacon-nodes=http://localhost:5052
error: The following required arguments were not provided:
    --http
    --http-address <ADDRESS>

USAGE:
    lighthouse validator_client --beacon-nodes <NETWORK_ADDRESSES> --builder-proposals --datadir <DIR> --debug-level <LEVEL> --genesis-state-url-timeout <SECONDS> --http --http-address <ADDRESS> --latency-measurement-service <BOOLEAN> --logfile-debug-level <LEVEL> --logfile-max-number <COUNT> --logfile-max-size <SIZE> --unencrypted-http-transport --validator-registration-batch-size <INTEGER> --web3-signer-keep-alive-timeout <MILLIS>

For more information try --help

Expected Behaviour

The VC should start up without --http and --http-address

Steps to resolve

Please describe the steps required to resolve this issue, if known.

[jshufro]

cc @superphiz who is dealing with this right now

[jshufro]

After a bit of inspecting it seems like this is because --unecrypted-http-transport was passed:

         .arg(
             Arg::with_name("unencrypted-http-transport")
                 .long("unencrypted-http-transport")
                 .help("This is a safety flag to ensure that the user is aware that the http \
                        transport is unencrypted and using a custom HTTP address is unsafe.")
                 .requires("http-address"),
         )

So this not a bug per se. Maybe more explicit logging is sufficient.

[chong-he]

So --unecrypted-http-transport and --http-address must accompanied each other, as you have mentioned.

With explicit logging, do you mean adding .requires("http) here:

lighthouse/validator_client/src/cli.rs

Lines 181 to 186 in 2a3c709

	.arg(
	Arg::with_name("unencrypted-http-transport")
	.long("unencrypted-http-transport")
	.help("This is a safety flag to ensure that the user is aware that the http \
	transport is unencrypted and using a custom HTTP address is unsafe.")
	.requires("http-address"),

to be consistent with the flag --http-address here?

lighthouse/validator_client/src/cli.rs

Lines 169 to 179 in 2a3c709

	Arg::with_name("http-address")
	.long("http-address")
	.requires("http")
	.value_name("ADDRESS")
	.help("Set the address for the HTTP address. The HTTP server is not encrypted \
	and therefore it is unsafe to publish on a public network. When this \
	flag is used, it additionally requires the explicit use of the \
	`--unencrypted-http-transport` flag to ensure the user is aware of the \
	risks involved. For access via the Internet, users should apply \
	transport-layer security like a HTTPS reverse-proxy or SSH tunnelling.")
	.requires("unencrypted-http-transport"),

[jshufro]

I'd prefer if the error message specified why conditionally-required fields were indicated, ie:

-error: The following required arguments were not provided:
+error: The following arguments are required by --unencrypted-http-transport but were not provided:
    --http
    --http-address <ADDRESS>

but, understandably, you can't change the way the cli arg parsing crate works internally.