GeezerVison

virtualenv env --extra-search-dir first --extra-search-dir second currently searches only second, despite the documented support for repeating the option. Offline creation can fail even when the required wheel is present in first; an online download can hide the ignored directory.

Accumulate CLI groups into a flat list while preserving the existing grouped syntax and CLI precedence over environment/INI defaults. Reuse the parser's default-initialization loop to reset accumulation between parses. Cover repeated/mixed groups, configuration precedence, and parser reuse, and correct the usage example.

Validation

• Reproduced on main, 236f395 (21.14.10).
• The original ten CLI cases produced 4 failures on the unchanged baseline; all now pass.
• Real offline creation using unmodified bundled pip/setuptools wheels: repeated flags failed before the fix; repeated and grouped forms both succeed afterward and install the pinned versions.
• All 12 focused cases pass on Python 3.9.25 and 3.15.0, including direct checks for repeated parsing, changed arguments, and restoration of unmodified defaults and their source.
• Targeted configuration/seeder tests on Python 3.9: 91 passed, 2 skipped. Configuration/seeder/CLI tests on Python 3.15: 123 passed, 1 skipped (--skip-slow, COLUMNS=240, PLAT=win-amd64).
• Repository-pinned pre-commit checks pass for all changed files. Source type checks pass for Python 3.9 and 3.15 with --python-platform all.
• The full suite and upstream CI have not run.

The outside input is the list of caller-supplied search-directory paths. They continue to be parsed as Path values and used as wheel search locations; this change preserves directories that were previously dropped and does not change wheel verification.

Contribution checklist

• ran the linter to address style issues (repository-pinned pre-commit hooks on the changed files)
• wrote descriptive pull request text
• ensured there are test(s) validating the fix
• added news fragment in docs/changelog folder (0.bugfix.rst; rename to the allocated PR number after creation)
• updated/extended the documentation
• explained the outside input and how it is handled
• ran targeted tests on Python 3.9 and 3.15 (direct pytest runs; full tox suites remain for CI)
• no temporary interpreter overrides require upstream issue links
• kept the PR in draft until CI passes