Azure-cli: Bash variable expansion swallows quotes

[andythsu]

key_1 = "foo"
key_2 = "boo"
val_1="foo 1"
val_2="boo 2"
tags=$key_1=$val_1 $key_2=$val_2
--tags $tags <- this command will give me error as it will parse the space in val_1 and val_2
please help. Thanks

_Originally posted by @andythsu in https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli/issue_comments#issuecomment-432701964_

[tjprescott]

@andythsu the short answer to your question is, there is no solution due to limitations of the bash shell.

export key1="key"
export val1="val 1"
export tags="$key1=$val1"
echo $tags
> key=val 1

The CLI will not accept the above.

export key1="key"
export val1="val 1"
export tags="$key1=\"$val1\""
echo $tags
> key="val 1"

This looks like is should work, but when you run:
az foo create --tags $tags
You end up with:

"tags": {
  "1\"": "",
  "foo": "\"foo"
}

[andythsu]

is there a wordaround to this? such as can I create with no tags first, and then update? or it's simply not possible

[tjprescott]

You'd get the same result with update. The issue is that the bash shell either swallows the quotes entirely (1st case) or forces their preservation with (second).

[andythsu]

yes... so I can only do --tags key="value", can't dynamically add keys right?

[tjprescott]

Well, you can do --tags key="value 1" as well, but not through $ expansion (at least not on bash). We will discuss whether we can implement a feasible workaround.

[andythsu]

The workaround we've found out is to create tags with no spaces, then update each tag
running az group update --name $name --set tags."$key=$value" somehow works

[williexu]

@andythsu you can do:

key=key
val="val 1"
az foo --tags "$key"="$val"

or

key=key
val="val 1"
tag="$key=$val"
az foo --tags "$tag"

or

tag1="key=val 1"
tag2="key2=val 2"
az foo --tags "$tag1" "$tag2"

Please let me know if you have other scenarios you were trying to make work.

[tjprescott]

This works for the single tag case, but not for his original question:
```bash
export key1=key1
export val1="val 1"
export key2=key2
export val2="val 2"
export tags=$key1=$val1 $key2=$val2

az foo --tags "$tags"

"tags": {
"key1": "val 1 key2=val 2"
}

[williexu]

Use arrays in that case:

tags=( "$key=$val1" "$tag1" )
az foo --tags --tags "${tags[@]}"

@andythsu if you would rather not use arrays, please use the examples I mentioned before, which should already let you bypass the restrictions of having to subsequently update and avoid spaces.

[tjprescott]

Thanks @williexu. I'm closing this issue.

[andythsu]

@williexu Thank you for the suggestions!

[andythsu]

@tjprescott Thanks for the comments too!