Groovy: Executing azure CLI Command with JSON - Parsing Issue? - azure

Question

Currently I fail to run an azure CLI command from Groovy because of the JSON Part in the Command.
There is an azure command to run custom scripts on a virtual machine. The CommandToExecute on the Machine is passes as JSON.
WORKING Example:
REQUEST-CALL in Console:az vm extension set -g demo --vm-name demo-cfg01 --name CustomScript --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions --settings '{"commandToExecute":"ls"}'
RESPONSE: {
"autoUpgradeMinorVersion": true,
"forceUpdateTag": null,
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/demo/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demo-cfg01/extensions/CustomScript",
"instanceView": null,
"location": "germanycentral",
"name": "CustomScript",
"protectedSettings": null,
"provisioningState": "Succeeded",
"publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.Extensions",
"resourceGroup": "demo",
"settings": {
"commandToExecute": "ls"
},
"tags": null,
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
"typeHandlerVersion": "2.0",
"virtualMachineExtensionType": "CustomScript"
}
This script works fine.
"Same" Command executed with Groovy leads to following:
def process
StopWatch.withTimeRecording("EXECUTING COMMAND '" + cargs + "'",_logger, Level.ALL) {
process = (cargs).execute(null,null);
process.waitForProcessOutput(sout, serr)
}
Please notice the StopWatch which logs the StringArray containing the params:
EXECUTING COMMAND '[az, vm, extension, set, -g, demo, --vm-name,
demo-cfg01, --name, CustomScript, --publisher,
Microsoft.Azure.Extensions, --settings, '{"commandToExecute":"ls"}']'
The Params looks the same as in the console
The Response from Azure is:
VM has reported a failure when processing extension 'CustomScript'.
Error message: "Enable failed: failed to get configuration: error
reading extension configuration: error parsing settings file: error
parsing json: json: cannot unmarshal string into Go value of type
map[string]interface {}
I think groovy somehow escapes the characters before execution, i cannot figure out what went wrong. Any suggestion?

Answer 1

when you call execute on array groovy (actually java) doublequotes each parameter.
just build your command line as you need in a string
string in groovy has the same execute method as an array...
def cmd = """az vm extension set -g demo --vm-name demo-cfg01 --name CustomScript --publisher Microsoft.Azure.Extensions --settings '{"commandToExecute":"ls"}' """
def process = cmd.execute()
when you use execute on string groovy will execute the exact command you've provided

Answer 2

Found a "workaround". The az command also accept an *.json file as settings parameter. Therefor i first create the command in a temporary json file and passes the json file as parameter. Works!

Answer 3

You are quoting for an .execute() call. You dont need to quote there, because no shell or command parser is involved here.
Your command there gets '{"commandToExecute":"ls"}', which is a valid JSON String (no Map) and this is also what the error message states:
error parsing json: json: cannot unmarshal string into Go value of type map[string]interface
Just use {"commandToExecute": "ls"} (no surrounding ') as argument there.