Double quotes within an exec statement

[Mike Reed]

Hello all,

I've been trying to run this exec statement (which to my peril was initially thought to be something simple):

exec { "/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" " :  }

After the command is run I'm getting the following error:

err: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Syntax error at '' '; expected '}' at /etc/puppet/modules/powerbroker_install/manifests/init.pp:20 on node sbxwk-blackhole.sbx.leiproductions.com

I need to run the command with the double quotes as the value of UserDomainPrefix but I'm having a hard time getting this one to run.  I figured if I changed to the command below, puppet wouldn't interpret the double quotes and things would work but I was quite wrong.

exec { " '/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" '  " :  }

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how one might run an exec with double quotes?

As always, thanks for the help in advance.

Cheers,

Mike

[Christopher Wood]

On Thu, Jul 05, 2012 at 01:23:47PM -0700, Mike Reed wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I've been trying to run this exec statement (which to my peril was
> initially thought to be something simple):
>
> exec { "/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" " :  }

Escape the inside double quotes:

$ cat /tmp/2.pp
notice("\"this is quoted\"")
notice("this is not quoted")
$ puppet apply /tmp/2.pp
notice: Scope(Class[main]): "this is quoted"
notice: Scope(Class[main]): this is not quoted

> After the command is run I'm getting the following error:
>
> err: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER:
> Syntax error at '' '; expected '}' at
> /etc/puppet/modules/powerbroker_install/manifests/init.pp:20 on node
> sbxwk-blackhole.sbx.leiproductions.com
>
> I need to run the command with the double quotes as the value of
> UserDomainPrefix but I'm having a hard time getting this one to run.  I
> figured if I changed to the command below, puppet wouldn't interpret the
> double quotes and things would work but I was quite wrong.
>
> exec { " '/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" '  " :  }

Better, if you're using the literal:

exec { '/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" ': }

But you'd save yourself the trouble by emplacing a shell script and running that.

> Does anybody have any suggestions as to how one might run an exec with
> double quotes?
>
> As always, thanks for the help in advance.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mike
>

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[Mike Zupan]

escape your inner quotes \" \"

exec { "/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix \"\" " : }

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[jcbollinger]

On Thursday, July 5, 2012 3:23:47 PM UTC-5, Mike Reed wrote:

Hello all,

I've been trying to run this exec statement (which to my peril was initially thought to be something simple):

exec { "/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" " :  }

After the command is run I'm getting the following error:

err: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: Syntax error at '' '; expected '}' at /etc/puppet/modules/powerbroker_install/manifests/init.pp:20 on node sbxwk-blackhole.sbx.leiproductions.com

The double quotes around the command's second argument are being interpreted as the end of the resource title.  The easiest solution is probably to switch the outer quotes to single:

exec { '/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix "" ' :  }

Indeed, it's a good idea to make a habit of using single quotes instead of double quotes in your Puppet manifests, except where you have specific reason to do otherwise (such as when you want to interpolate a variable into your string).  Alternatively, you should also be able to escape the internal double quotes with backslashes:

exec { "/opt/pbis/bin/config UserDomainPrefix \"\" " :  }

John

[Mike Reed]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the input.   Your comments were most helpful and I definitely get it now.

I realize that the way I'm going about doing this one probably isn't the most desirable and as soon as I have my important manifests working in a basic state, I'll come back to each one and fix them up.

Thanks again for the help.

Cheers,

Mike