CLI parameter -c causes overwrite of -p param

What happened?

When running the following command:

./run_synthea -p 100 -c ./synthea.properties Groningen Groningen

I expected to get 100 patients as a result, but I only got one.

But when I removed my -c option I got the expected 100.

./run_synthea -p 100 Groningen Groningen

My custom config is the following:

exporter.ccda.export = false
exporter.fhir.export = true
exporter.fhir_stu3.export = false
exporter.fhir_dstu2.export = false

This is because when the -c option is used, it overwrites the population set from -p. I assume this should only be applied if -p is not set, or when generate.default_population is actually set in the config file

Line overwriting the -p value when -c is set:

https://github.com/synthetichealth/synthea/blob/d388c9943b037c2b2e5419f4323deba283e7672b/src/main/java/App.java#L126

Environment

- OS: WSL (Ubuntu 20.04)
- Java: (Through Docker) openjdk:8-slim

Relevant log output

No response

[hadleynet]

I think we always load the default config file (Config.java line 16) and the local config file overrides any specific properties in that file (App.java line 123).

[jawalonoski]

Also, since you only have four parameters in your custom file, I’m not sure what will happen to all the other parameters…

We never really intended for people to supply partial properties files.

I hope the code has sensible defaults for everything… 😬