Virtualmin create-user without a description (super stupid question)

[Ron_E_James_D.O]

This question has no real usefulness to me, I’m just curious.

If I create a domain (in a proposed mail-only Virtuamin server) and I leave the “Description” block blank, there is then no description. Not only is there no description, but there is no description block in the domain’s 'Virtual Server Summary".

However, if I create a domain like this:

virtualmin create-domain --domain test-domain.com --user test user --pass “testpassword” --mail --dns --spam --virus --dir --webmin --unix --desc " "

though there is no description in the general list of virtual servers, the block still exists with nothing beneath it in the created virtual server’s “Virtual Server Summary”,

GUI:

vs Command line:

If I specify the description as just --desc (followed by nothing), don’t include that flag, or specify it as --desc “” (with no space in between the quotes), the description always defaults to “the-domain.com”.

I’m just curious about it because ordinarily in GUI → Linux ‘stuff’ the GUI is secretly running a command-line in the background… so I wondered if it can be observed what the actual command that the GUI runs is (and what is different about the one I am trying).

Again, I have no reason to need this, I’m just curious how it works.

Thanks.

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version	Ubuntu 24.04
Virtualmin version	7.10.0

[Joe]

@Ron_E_James_D.O

I’m just curious about it because ordinarily in GUI → Linux ‘stuff’ the GUI is secretly running a command-line in the background… so I wondered if it can be observed what the actual command that the GUI runs is (and what is different about the one I am trying).

No. The GUI is not running the CLI commands. The CLI and the GUI call the same library functions to perform their tasks; one of them doesn’t call the other. They can behave differently, though they generally shouldn’t.

[shoulders]

maybe when running the create command from the GUI, if the description field is empty then the GUI script does not add the switch --desc to the generated command and thus the behaviour is the same.

• --desc “ ” (with a space) is saying the description is one space
• --desc “” (no space) is the same as null value so a default is used from somewhere
• the description field in the summary will always be shown

[Joe]

@shoulders

then the GUI script does not add the switch --desc to the generated command

I just explained the GUI is not running the CLI command. It’s not generating commands, The GUI and the CLI call the same libraries, the GUI does not call the CLI (in fact, the CLI came after the GUI).