Implemented option to delay treating non-flags as haltable

lib/yargs-parser-types.ts

@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ export interface Configuration {
   'strip-dashed': boolean;
   /** Should unknown options be treated like regular arguments? An unknown option is one that is not configured in opts. Default is `false` */
   'unknown-options-as-args': boolean;
+  /** Should we delay treating non-flag tokens as invalid until we've seen a flag. Default is 'false' **/
+  'wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options': boolean;
 }
 
 export type ArrayOption = string | { key: string; boolean?: boolean, string?: boolean, number?: boolean, integer?: boolean };

lib/yargs-parser.ts

@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ export class YargsParser {
       'short-option-groups': true,
       'strip-aliased': false,
       'strip-dashed': false,
-      'unknown-options-as-args': false
+      'unknown-options-as-args': false,
+      'wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options': false
     }, opts.configuration)
     const defaults: OptionsDefault = Object.assign(Object.create(null), opts.default)
     const configObjects = opts.configObjects || []
@@ -210,6 +211,7 @@ export class YargsParser {
     // remove all prototypes from objects returned by this API, we might want
     // to gradually move towards doing so.
     const argvReturn: { [argName: string]: any } = {}
+    let requireDash = !configuration['wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options'];
 
     for (let i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {
       const arg = args[i]
@@ -221,8 +223,12 @@ export class YargsParser {
       let next: string
       let value: string
 
+      if (!requireDash && arg.length > 0 && arg.charAt(0) === '-') {
+        requireDash = true;
+      }
+
       // any unknown option (except for end-of-options, "--")
-      if (arg !== '--' && /^-/.test(arg) && isUnknownOptionAsArg(arg)) {
+      if (arg !== '--' && (!requireDash || /^-/.test(arg)) && isUnknownOptionAsArg(arg)) {
         pushPositional(arg)
       // ---, ---=, ----, etc,
       } else if (truncatedArg.match(/^---+(=|$)/)) {

test/yargs-parser.cjs

@@ -3011,11 +3011,41 @@ describe('yargs-parser', function () {
 
       it('is not influenced by unknown options when "unknown-options-as-args" is true', function () {
         const parse = parser(
-          ['-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar'],
+          ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar'],
           { configuration: { 'halt-at-non-option': true, 'unknown-options-as-args': true }, boolean: ['foo'] }
         )
         parse.should.deep.equal({
-          _: ['-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar']
+          _: ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar']
+        })
+      })
+      it('is initially influenced by unknown options when "unknown-options-as-args" and "wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options" are true', function () {
+        const parse = parser(
+            ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar'],
+            { configuration: { 'halt-at-non-option': true, 'unknown-options-as-args': true, 'wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options': true }, boolean: ['foo'] }
+        )
+        parse.should.deep.equal({
+          _: ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar']
+        })
+      })
+
+      it('puts all unknown options in "--" when "populate--" and "unknown-options-as-args" are true', function () {
+        const parse = parser(
+            ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar'],
+            { configuration: { 'populate--': true, 'halt-at-non-option': true, 'unknown-options-as-args': true }, boolean: ['foo'] }
+        )
+        parse.should.deep.equal({
+          _: [],
+          "--": ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar']
+        })
+      })
+      it('puts later unknown options in "--" when "populate--", "unknown-options-as-args", and "wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options" are true', function () {
+        const parse = parser(
+            ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long', 'arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar'],
+            { configuration: { 'populate--': true, 'halt-at-non-option': true, 'unknown-options-as-args': true, 'wait-for-first-flag-before-filtering-options': true }, boolean: ['foo'] }
+        )
+        parse.should.deep.equal({
+          _: ['abc', 'def', '-v', '--long'],
+          "--": ['arg', './file.js', '--foo', '--', 'barbar']
         })
       })
     })