Environment variable nested items function

[aaron-uk]

Please describe your feature request.

I wish I could use yq to split a variable string into an array to use within my code.

As 'variable=a yq evel '.[env(variable)] = "something"' only works at one level nesting, I would like a new function to work with multiple nested paths e.g. 'nested_variable=a.b.c yq evel '.[arrenv(nested_variable)] = "something"' (I have used 'arr' prefix as an example but it could be anything.)

The main reason for this is to have a reusable task for my continuous integration pipeline where the path to the 'tag' in the example below will be in different nested positions in the .yaml file on different projects.

Describe the solution you'd like
If we have values.yaml like:

project:
  environment:
    PORT: 389
  image:
    repository: project/image
    pullPolicy: Always
    tag: "1.0.0"

And we run a command:

tag_path=project.image.tag yq eval '.[arrenv(tag_path)] = "1.0.1"' -i values.yaml

it could output

project:
  environment:
    PORT: 389
  image:
    repository: project/image
    pullPolicy: Always
    tag: "1.0.1"

I love using yq and this would make it even better!
cheers Aaron

[mikefarah]

Ah I see - it would need to evaluate the expression in .[exp] as a fully embedded yq expression instead of assuming its just a key/index into the current context. I think this is tricky but doable - just need enough free time.

As a work around, you could use bash string interpolation to work around it - though that can get tricky with quote escaping as you'll need to wrap the expression in double quotes so bash knows to interpolate it.

tag_path=project.image.tag yq eval "${tag_path} = \"1.0.1\"" -i values.yaml

[mikefarah]

I've added a eval operator - will be out in the next release :)

[mikefarah]

Fixed in 4.19.1 - see

[mikefarah]

Forgot link: https://mikefarah.gitbook.io/yq/operators/eval

[aaron-uk]

Hi Mike, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for adding this so quickly. I'll trial it in my development environment this coming week and let you know how I get on.