Why does pihole-FTL --config webserver.port xxx -f not work?

[codeling]

Thanks for the detailed write-up. Has something changed in the meantime? Because when I try pihole-FTL --config webserver.port ..., it shows a "usage" information, just as if webserver.port isn't a valid configuration key:

$ sudo pihole-FTL --config webserver.port '' -f
Usage: pihole-FTL --config [<config item key>] [<value>]
Example: pihole-FTL --config dns.blockESNI true

$ sudo pihole-FTL --version
v6.0.2

Am I doing something wrong here?

[Bucking_Horn]

What's your motivation for running that webserver.port command?

[rdwebdesign]

@codeling

Am I doing something wrong here?

Two things are wrong:

• Why are you trying to set an empty string as the web server port? Without a port you won't be able to access the web interface.

• If you still want this command to succeed and remove all ports (even after my explanation above), you need to remove -f from your command. There is no -f option for --config.

[codeling]

@Bucking_Horn

What's your motivation for running that webserver.port command?

My idea was to run pihole-FTL with webserver disabled, for testing purposes; I had tried with some port values in there but that had similarly failed.

@rdwebdesign

Two things are wrong:

• Why are you trying to set an empty string as the web server port? Without a port you won't be able to access the web interface.
• If you still want this command to succeed and remove all ports (even after my explanation above), you need to remove -f from your command. There is no -f option for --config.

As for point 1 - it was just for test purposes; but I could imagine use cases for disabling the web interface - e.g. disabling it to minimize potential attack surfaces.

Thanks for the second point - that made me re-think my initial assumption - that I had to start pihole-FTL with those options as arguments, in order for them to be effective in this run of the program.

As I understand it now, the pihole-FTL --config ... command changes the pihole-FTL configuration permanently (and these changes either are picked up by a running instance of pihole-FTL or at least after a restart).

I'm just used to configure permanent things directly in config files rather than through commands, and mostly doing non-permanent things via command line switches, that's why I immediately thought in those directions.

So, everything good now, and thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

[rdwebdesign]

@codeling

my initial assumption - that I had to start pihole-FTL with those options as arguments

As you noticed, --config argument is used to read or change pihole.toml. It is just like editing the file directly.
This option can't be used in conjunction with other FTL options.