Passing an hostname to --address doesn't work after version 3.15.2

[giorgio-cara]

Description:
Up until version 3.15.2 included, when I pass a resolvable hostname using the option --address the browser automatically opens with that hostname in the URL. In newer versions the browser opens always with "localhost" in the URL.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. configure a hostname that resolves to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file, let's call it "myhostname" in this example
2. install ionic CLI 3.15.2 with the command "npm i -g ionic@3.15.2"
3. run the command "ionic serve --address myhostname", the browser opens using "myhostname" in the URL
4. update the CLI to one of the next versions (version 4 included), for example with the command "npm i -g ionic@3.16.0"
5. run the command "ionic serve --address myhostname", now the browser opens using "localhost" in the URL instead of "myhostname"

My ionic info:

cli packages: (C:\Users\giorg\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules)

    @ionic/cli-utils  : 1.16.0
    ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.16.0

local packages:

    @ionic/app-scripts : 3.1.11
    Ionic Framework    : ionic-angular 3.9.2

System:

    Node : v8.11.3
    npm  : 5.6.0
    OS   : Windows 10

Misc:

    backend : legacy

[imhoffd]

I think we should fix this with a --public-host option. More info: #3440 (comment)

[imhoffd]

@giorgio-cara I don't think we want to always use --address for the URL in the browser. This was changed because the Ionic DevApp requires the Ionic CLI to use 0.0.0.0 (or a specific external network address) to work. But once the default changed to 0.0.0.0, the browser opened http://0.0.0.0, and I wasn't sure of the implications of changing the default URLs of people's apps while they were developing using ionic serve.

I think we'll use --address for server host, and have it default to 0.0.0.0. We'll use --public-host for the browser URL, and have it default to localhost.

How does that sound?

[giorgio-cara]

That sounds like a more appropriate solution, thanks.

[imhoffd]

Closing in favor of this: #3558