Yq: Error: unknown shorthand flag when value starts with a hypen

[pcrocker-pivotal]

yaml w -i task-output/manifest.yml 'env.JAVA_OPTS' '-Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/urandom'
Usage:
  yaml write [yaml_file] [path] [value] [flags]

Aliases:
  write, w


Examples:

yaml write things.yaml a.b.c cat
yaml write --inplace things.yaml a.b.c cat
yaml w -i things.yaml a.b.c cat
yaml w --script update_script.yaml things.yaml
yaml w -i -s update_script.yaml things.yaml


Flags:
  -i, --inplace[=false]: update the yaml file inplace
  -s, --script="": yaml script for updating yaml

Global Flags:
  -J, --fromjson[=false]: input as json
  -j, --tojson[=false]: output as json
  -t, --trim[=true]: trim yaml output
  -v, --verbose[=false]: verbose mode

Error: unknown shorthand flag: 'D' in -Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/urandom

[mikefarah]

Ooh nice, played around with it a little, I was able to get it working by using both single and double quotes.

/yaml w sample.json a.b '"-Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/urandom"'

Not pretty but it works. I'll update the doco too for when someone else encounters this :)

[mikefarah]

Just realised that this won't work for negative numbers as it will treat the value as a string...

[mikefarah]

Ok worked it out, you need to use the flag terminator (--) so:

yaml w sample.json -- a.b -Djava.security.egd=file:///dev/urandom

this also works with numbers

yaml w sample.json -- a.b -3