ERROR: (gcloud.run.deploy) argument --set-env-vars: Bad syntax for dict arg

[marceljm]

During a deploy to Cloud Run, I'm trying to set the Environment Variables field like this:

KEY1:value1
KEY2:value2,value3

But I'm having this error:

Failed to deploy the app. Error: ERROR: (gcloud.run.deploy) argument --set-env-vars: Bad syntax for dict arg: [value3]. Please see gcloud topic flags-file or gcloud topic escaping for information on providing list or dictionary flag values with special characters. ,Usage: gcloud run deploy [[SERVICE] --namespace=NAMESPACE] [optional flags] optional flags may be --add-cloudsql-instances | --allow-unauthenticated | --args | --async | --binary-authorization | --breakglass | --clear-binary-authorization | --clear-cloudsql-instances | --clear-config-maps | --clear-env-vars | --clear-key | --clear-labels | --clear-post-key-revocation-action-type | --clear-secrets | --clear-vpc-connector | --cluster | --cluster-location | --command | --concurrency | --connectivity | --context | --cpu | --cpu-throttling | --env-vars-file | --help | --image | --ingress | --key | --kubeconfig | --labels | --max-instances | --memory | --min-instances | --namespace | --platform | --port | --post-key-revocation-action-type | --region | --remove-cloudsql-instances | --remove-config-maps | --remove-env-vars | --remove-labels | --remove-secrets | --revision-suffix | --service-account | --set-cloudsql-instances | --set-config-maps | --set-env-vars | --set-secrets | --source | --tag | --timeout | --no-traffic | --update-config-maps | --update-env-vars | --update-labels | --update-secrets | --use-http2 | --vpc-connector | --vpc-egress For detailed information on this command and its flags, run: gcloud run deploy --help

So it seems the comma needs to be escaped, but I had no success with quotation marks or backslash. How to make this work?

[etanshaul]

Hi. I work on the IntelliJ extension and we have a similar issue.

Did you, by any chance, try entering the all of the env vars into a single field in the VS Code UI (with the custom delimiter as required by Cloud Run for dictionary values)? This does not work in IntelliJ due to the way it is parsed, but I am not sure if it would in VSC (untested).

One solution we are considering is supporting the --env-vars-file flag which will allow you to point to a file on disk containing all of your env vars (and you'd avoid having to mess with the delimiters). Would this approach work for you?

[marceljm]

Hi, @etanshaul

Could you provide examples, please? Or maybe documentation links. I don't know exactly how to do this in Cloud Code.

1. "entering the all of the env vars into a single field in the VS Code UI"
2. "supporting the --env-vars-file flag".

[etanshaul]

I will try out (1) later. It is more of a work around, and not ideal at all. (and like I said, doesn't work in IJ, so I suspect it won't work here either).

For (2) disregard, sorry. Cloud Run actually does not support this flag (https://ahmet.im/blog/mastering-cloud-run-environment-variables/).

We'll need to investigate this within the team to find the best solution.

[marceljm]

For now I could solve that by making "Environment Variables" UI field empty and using a Dockerfile to set the variables. This syntax works:

ENV KEY1='value1'
ENV KEY2='value2,value3'

[kschaab]

We'll slate this for a fix by passing the values to gcloud in a different way.