List as metadata value after gcloud update

[Rodrigo Borges]

Hello,

whats is the best way to use a instance metadata value as a list using commas?

I think i can't understand this document as i should: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/topic/escaping

Log history:

i was used to create instances with metadata as list using commas like this:

gcloud compute instances create --metadata key1="value" key2=myValue  key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3 key4=value4

So I had a metadata key3 with  "valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3" as value.

After the last update I was told to run as a list of metadata using commas and my list doesn't work anymore.

So, i read about "gcloud topic escaping" and tried to use something like this:

--metadata ^:^ key1="value":key2=myValue:key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3

Which i found very confusing and still give warnings saying that I should use commas.

So I tried (replacing my old comma-separated list from commas to ";" ) :

--metadata key1="value",key2=myValue,key3=valueIndex1;valueIndex2;valueIndex3,key4=value4

Which was horrible because gcloud tried to execute my key3 values as bash commands. So I believe i'm doing something wrong as it should be very simple.

Can you help me please?

[Alex Martelli]

No, it's not gcloud -- it's bash itself, taking non-quoted semicolons as command separators.

So just use (single) quotes:

--metadata key1="value",key2=myValue,key3='valueIndex1;valueIndex2;valueIndex3,key4=value4'

 

So I believe i'm doing something wrong as it should be very simple.

Yes, it just needs understanding Unix-like shells, such as bash -- which often is *not* very simple, although I fully agree it *should* be. But it's not really a GCE-specific problem.

 

Can you help me please?

There are many online tutorials on bash quoting, such as http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/bash-quoting and http://bash.cyberciti.biz/guide/Quoting 

HTH,

Alex

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[Kamran (Google Cloud Support)]

Hello Rodrigo,

--metadata is an ArgDict argument, which means it expects an argument of the form '--metadata key1=value1,key2=value2'. 

To get around this, you can specify an alternate delimiter (as opposed to a comma) using the following syntax: '^FOO^key1=value1FOOkey2=value2' 

In your case the following command should work:

$ gcloud compute instances create inst2 --metadata ^:^key1="value":key2=myValue:key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3:key4=value4

Please make sure that you're using the latest version of the Cloud SDK. To update your Cloud SDK use the command below:

$ gcloud components update

Sincerely,

Kamran

[Rodrigo Borges]

Thank you Alex and Kamran,

Kamram,

I thought that i was missing something about "ArgDict"s (and i got confused messing up bash).

It would be nice to hear from the community how others work with a list of values in a metadata key.

Do you use a character as separator or other structure?

Best,

Rodrigo.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 3:09 PM, Kamran (Google Cloud Support) <khas...@google.com> wrote:

Hello Rodrigo,

--metadata is an ArgDict argument, which means it expects an argument of the form '--metadata key1=value1,key2=value2'. 

To get around this, you can specify an alternate delimiter (as opposed to a comma) using the following syntax: '^FOO^key1=value1FOOkey2=value2' 

In your case the following command should work:

$ gcloud compute instances create inst2 --metadata ^:^key1=value:key2=myValue:key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3

Please make sure that you're using the latest version of the Cloud SDK. To update your Cloud SDK use the command below:

$ gcloud components update

Sincerely,

Kamran

On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 10:10:15 AM UTC-4, Rodrigo Borges wrote:

Hello,

whats is the best way to use a instance metadata value as a list using commas?

I think i can't understand this document as i should: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/topic/escaping

Log history:

i was used to create instances with metadata as list using commas like this:

gcloud compute instances create --metadata key1="value" key2=myValue  key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3 key4=value4

So I had a metadata key3 with  "valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3" as value.

After the last update I was told to run as a list of metadata using commas and my list doesn't work anymore.

So, i read about "gcloud topic escaping" and tried to use something like this:

--metadata ^:^ key1="value":key2=myValue:key3=valueIndex1,valueIndex2,valueIndex3

Which i found very confusing and still give warnings saying that I should use commas.

So I tried (replacing my old comma-separated list from commas to ";" ) :

--metadata key1="value",key2=myValue,key3=valueIndex1;valueIndex2;valueIndex3,key4=value4

Which was horrible because gcloud tried to execute my key3 values as bash commands. So I believe i'm doing something wrong as it should be very simple.

Can you help me please?

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