`nx start <app> --args='<args>'` works in a counter-productive way

Nx (and @nrwl/workspace:run-commands specifically) seems to do some extremely strange and counter-productive things with the command-line args that are meant to be passed to the primary target as-is.

Context

Our use case is a command-line app (say placed under apps/cli) that depends on various libraries under libs/. Whenever we run yarn nx start cli, we want nx to check if the cli app needs to be built first and in that case it should run the build target for it and all of its dependencies.

This works well and is accomplished via the following configuration in nx.json:

  ...
  "targetDependencies": {
    "start": [
      {
        "target": "build",
        "projects": "self"
      }
    ],
    "build": [
      {
        "target": "build",
        "projects": "dependencies"
      }
    ],
  ...

After building (if needed) we want all CLI args (let’s signify them by ...), specified via either yarn start cli --args='...' or yarn start cli -- ..., to be passed without modification only to the start target of the cli app:

apps/cli/project.json:

  ...
    "start": {
      "executor": "@nrwl/workspace:run-commands",
      "options": {
        "command": "node apps/cli/dist/main.js"
      }
    },
  ...

In other words, the command executed for the start target should be:

node apps/cli/dist/main.js ...

Current Behavior

Nx transmogrifies the CLI args after which it passes them to the commands triggered from the build targets the libraries that the cli app depends on.

For example, if we run yarn nx start cli --args='--option1 --option2', nx will need to solve the following target dependency graph:

• apps/cli:start ->
  • apps/cli:build ->
    • libs/lib1:build ->
      • libs/lib1:build-part-1 ->
        • libs/lib1:codegen ->
      • libs/lib1:build-part-2 ->
        • libs/lib1:codegen ->

Which yields the following topological ordering (assuming synchronous/linear execution, not parallel, for simplicity):

1. libs/lib1:codegen (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)
2. libs/lib1:build-part-1
3. libs/lib1:build-part-2
4. libs/lib1:build (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)
5. apps/cli:build
6. apps/cli:start (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)

Instead of simply running the commands specified by targets 1., 4. and 6., Nx (via yargs) first transforms --option1 --option2 to --_= --option1=true --option2=true and appends it to the command string of targets 1, 4 and 6, which causes them to fail.

Expected Behavior

Given command:

yarn nx start cli --args='--option1 --option2'

and topological ordering:

1. libs/lib1:codegen (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)
2. libs/lib1:build-part-1
3. libs/lib1:build-part-2
4. libs/lib1:build (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)
5. apps/cli:build
6. apps/cli:start (executor: @nrwl/workspace:run-commands)

Nx should pass --option1 --option2 only to target 6.

Steps to Reproduce

Let me know if the information provided is sufficient. If not, I can prepare a repo that reproduces the problem.

Failure Logs

➤ yarn nx start cli --args='--option1 --option2'

 >  NX   Running target start for project cli and 5 task(s) it depends on

 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

> nx run lib1:code-gen --args="--option1 --option2"

Error occured:  Unknown option: --_=
Run with --show-stack-traces to see the full stacktrace
ERROR: Something went wrong in @nrwl/run-commands - Command failed: command --_= --option1=true --option2=true

 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

 >  NX   Running target "cli:start" failed

   Failed tasks:
   
   - lib1:code-gen
   
   Hint: run the command with --verbose for more details.

Environment

➤ yarn nx report

 >  NX   Report complete - copy this into the issue template

   Node : 16.13.2
   OS   : linux x64
   yarn : 3.1.1
   
   nx : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/angular : undefined
   @nrwl/cli : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/cypress : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/detox : undefined
   @nrwl/devkit : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/eslint-plugin-nx : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/express : 13.8.5
   @nrwl/jest : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/js : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/linter : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/nest : undefined
   @nrwl/next : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/node : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/nx-cloud : undefined
   @nrwl/react : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/react-native : undefined
   @nrwl/schematics : undefined
   @nrwl/storybook : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/tao : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/web : 13.8.4
   @nrwl/workspace : 13.8.4
   typescript : 4.5.5
   rxjs : 7.5.5
   ---------------------------------------
   Community plugins:

[akollegger]

I’ve worked around this by wrapping the desired command args in a nested args which is then interpolated in place.

A target for running oclif:

    "exec": {
      "executor": "nx:run-commands",
      "outputs": [],
      "options": {
        "command": "bin/run {args.args}",
        "cwd": "apps/oclif"
      }
    }

Nesting the args by calling like this:

nx run oclif:exec --args="--args='help plugins'"

[Rijak0]

What worked for me with version 14.8.3: yarn nx start cli --args=--option1,--option2