Multi line values are getting converted into single line

[Bennet-Sunder]

Suppose I have two files like so

main.yml

---
  added: asdfasdf

updated_main.yml

---
  added:
    from: This is a huge line across
        two files
    now: |
        This is a key across two
        lines but it's with a multi line comment
    now_again: >
        This is a key across two
        lines but it's with a multi line comment

I wish to merge these into another file, so I use this command.

yq eval-all 'select(fileIndex == 0) * select(fileIndex == 1)'main.yaml updated_main.yaml > "new_file.yaml"

And this is how new_file.yml looks like

---
added:
  from: This is a huge line across two files
  now: |
    This is a key across two
    lines but it's with a multi line comment
  now_again: >
    This is a key across two lines but it's with a multi line comment

As you can see the from, now_again key is collapsed from two lines to one line, unlike the now key. I'm guessing since the now has the | symbol indicating that it is a multi-line value.

Do we have some option that we can use as yq not to collapse strings like from, now_again into a single line? Since we have huge files and the diff gets out of hand and fixing them is overhead as well.

Any solutions or workarounds, pls?

[mikefarah]

This is a known (and annoying) issue with the underlying go-yaml parser. I have seen some people do some tricky magic using diff here: #515 can't comment on how well it works though

[Bennet-Sunder]

thanks for the reply @mikefarah
So in case it collapses multi-line it into a single line, is it possible to at least set the line length to 80 characters so that it doesn't end up as on long string.

[mikefarah]

Nope :( There a whole bunch of issues raised against go-yaml (e.g. go-yaml/yaml#827) but afaik none have yet been resolved :(

[mikefarah]

At some point I need to look at moving away from the lib - but it will be a big task

[Bennet-Sunder]

okaay gotcha. thanks for your time :)