Hosts File Editor: Adds no whitespace option

[WalterWolf49]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.87.0

Installation method

WinGet

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Hosts File Editor

Steps to reproduce

Create or modify any hosts file entry or simply enabling/disabling them.

✔️ Expected Behavior

creates or modifies any entry without adding leading spaces for every entry.

❌ Actual Behavior

creates or modifies entries with two leading spaces for every entry. Those leading spaces cause issues with some software, e.g. squid.

Other Software

Squid proxy (4.14)

[crutkas]

The double space is intentional so enabled and disabled all are aligned when you view the file.

I have extra white space in files all the time, feels a bit odd that they can't handle extra white space. most people would just delete the # in a comment.

Shifting this to a feature request as that file can have white space there.

[WalterWolf49]

This behaviour makes sense from an aesthetic point of view then.

So this is more likely a problem from squid's side, if the file is allowed to have white spaces. I guess their handling of the whitespace as a delimiter at the beginning might be a bit weird.

[htcfreek]

@blakestack
Your contribution is welcome and thank you for your work on this. Feel free to open a PR. If you have any further questions don't worry to ask them.

I think this should be a compatibility setting defaulting to off.

[htcfreek]

@BlackStack
Are you still working on this? (@sottsche asked to implement/fix this.)

[blakestack]

@htcfreek Hey, I was working on the issue previously, but got stuck on how to implement the actual solution. I think I found where the host file editor is creating each entry with a StringBuilder() function.

I think that line 158 or line 162 in the directory -> PowerToys/src/modules/Hosts/HostsUILib/Helpers/HostsService.cs
is where the whitespace is being added.

I could not implement how to turn it into a compatability setting. What is the best way to proceed?

[htcfreek]

@davidegiacometti
Can you help here?

[davidegiacometti]

Hi @blakestack

The lines you identified are the ones responsible for adding the space.
This is what I would do (not necessary in that order):

1. Add a new bool option https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/settings-ui/Settings.UI.Library/HostsProperties.cs
2. Implement the UI for the option in settings app
   https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/SettingsXAML/Views/HostsPage.xaml
   https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/HostsViewModel.cs
3. Expose the new option to the Hosts app https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/modules/Hosts/Hosts/Settings/UserSettings.cs
4. Use the new option https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/modules/Hosts/HostsUILib/Helpers/HostsService.cs
5. Add test coverage for scenarios where option is on/off https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/modules/Hosts/Hosts.Tests/HostsServiceTest.cs

[blakestack]

Hey, @davidegiacometti thank you for the explanation and guidance. I will try to move forward with the implementation.