[et-mgmt-tools] Cobbler v0.4.2-0 templating not working?

[Michael DeHaan]

Foreman, Tim wrote:
> Did templating change or break between 0.2.8-1 and 0.4.2-0?
>
> I can't get the templating to work anymore.
>
> My kickstart file has entries like this in it: 
> INSTALL_ENV=TEMPLATE::env
>
> When I add a system I use the --ksmeta option - like this:
>
> cobbler system add --name=00:17:A4:3D:B4:5D --profile=base_test \
> --ksmeta="env=mtc hostname=ibsqa-xen ip0=10.9.90.10 mask0=255.255.0.0
> gw=10.10.0.3 ip1=10.10.90.10 mask1=255.255.0.0"
>
> After I sync, the kickstart file the template line looks like this:
> INSTALL_ENV=$env
>
> And when I do a report --systems, the ksmeta data doesn't show up:
> system          : 00:17:A4:3D:B4:5D
> profile         : base_test
> kernel options  : {}
> ks metadata     : {}
> pxe address     : 
>
> Where is the ksmeta data going?
> --
> Timothy W. Foreman ~ Security Administrator ~ tforeman at ibsys.com
> (651) 365-4181     ~ Internet Broadcasting  ~ www.ibsys.com
> --
> The Onion: Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?
> Berkeley Breathed: Dad. The rest is frosting.
>
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>   

This is definitely bug.   Apparently the "item.py" source code now 
splits ksmeta parameters on "," not on whitespace as it did in previous 
versions.
I am changing 0.4.3 back to split on whitespace in accordance with the 
manpage.

If you use "," to seperate the items for now, you /should/ see them 
entered correctly, and on the upgrade, they should still be there.
Cobbler is now storing internal datastructures as hashes and lists, 
rather than strings, and that's how this bug was introduced.  The 
parsing function was fed in the wrong delimiter.  

The reason for changing the storage format is now much more data can be 
fed into the templating engine (especially if using the API and not the 
command line) where before it was hard to express strings that contained 
newlines and longer passages of text, like an SSH key.   Basically it 
makes the YAML files in /var/lib/shadowmanager easier to edit and modify.

diff -r 78521aa0ef20 cobbler/item.py
--- a/cobbler/item.py   Tue Feb 27 14:46:54 2007 -0500
+++ b/cobbler/item.py   Wed Feb 28 16:16:14 2007 -0500
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class Item(serializable.Serializable):
         The meta tags are used as input to the templating system
         to preprocess kickstart files
         """
-        (success, value) = utils.input_string_or_hash(options,",")
+        (success, value) = utils.input_string_or_hash(options,None)
         if not success:
             return False
         else:


--Michael