node-init "-c" / "--cluster " command line argument can cause confusion with respect to the value that needs to be provided to it.

The command for initializing a Couchbase cluster node node-init has an argument  (-c / --cluster) for taking the cluster URL as input as shown below:

couchbase-cli node-init [--cluster <url>] [--username <user>]

 [--password <password>] [--node-init-data-path <path>]

 [--node-init-index-path <path>] [--node-init-hostname <hostname>]

For example:

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli node-init -c $DATA_NODE_IP:8091--node-init-data-path=/opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/data -u Administrator -p password

As per the documentation, the cluster URL specifies the following:

-c --cluster

Specifies the hostname of a node in the cluster. See the HOST FORMATS section for more information on specifying a hostname.

This option is causing a confusion with respect to the value that needs to be passed to it.

The expected value that needs to be passed to this argument "-c / --cluster" during a node initialization, is the IP address of the node on which the node initialization takes place. However, this argument causes a confusion where "-c"/"–cluster" can even denote the cluster URL of an existing cluster to which this node needs to be added. 

The server-add command also has the same command line argument "-c / --cluster" that expects the cluster URL of an existing cluster to which a node has to be added.

For node-init, the argument can be changed from "c/cluster" to something more meaningful like "-node" to ensure that there is no confusion with respect to the value that needs to be passed to it:

/opt/couchbase/bin/couchbase-cli node-init -node $DATA_NODE_IP:8091--node-init-data-path=/opt/couchbase/var/lib/couchbase/data -u Administrator -p password

We already have precedent for removing 'global' options such as username and password for reset-admin-password, this would be another example of adjusting the defaults to make the API clearer.