problems with complex configuration values

[santiagozky]

Im trying to apply certain values for a specific osgi configuration org.apache.sling.caconfig.impl.override.OsgiConfigurationOverrideProvider . This configuration is a multivalue property with a rather complex format for each one:
[{contextPath}]{configName}/{propertyName}={propertyJsonValue}
or
[{contextPath}]{configName}={propertyJsonValue}
this presents some issues:

• being multivalue string means each entry need to be between quotes
• there is a equal sign that needs escaping
• the json needs proper escaping

Unfortunately I haven't found a way to properly escape the configurations.

For example, this format as an environment variable:
[\"[a]b={'a':true}\",\"[w]x/y={'z':true}\"]

is displayed like this in the groovy console

["[a]b={'a':true}","[w]x/y={'z':true}"]

and leads to the property in the file being written as
[\"[a]b={'a':true}\",\"[w]x/y={'z':true}\"]

Notice that the quotes that should encompass each value have been escaped, though they are not properly picked as individual properties

I think the issue is in VariablesMerger L89
valueToBeUsed = valueToBeUsed.replaceAll("([\\\\=\\s\"])", "\\\\$1");

Where the quote character is escaped every time, making multivalue properties not possible to set.

[santiagozky]

while writing this I realized the issue seems to be that dumbly escaping quotes makes impossible to set multi value properties (for strings, at least) since they follow the format ["a","b","c"] and the hook always escapes them

[kwin]

It depends a lot on which serialization format of OSGi configuration you use which escaping is necessary: https://sling.apache.org/documentation/bundles/configuration-installer-factory.html#configuration-serialization-formats.
It seems that the code is currently only support .config format: 2173aca.
@santiagozky Please clarify in the report which OSGi configuration format you use.

[santiagozky]

Im using .config files right now. using a cfg.json does seem to work since it does not escape those especial characters.
I think in the end the problem is that it is not possible (or easy, at least) to get multi value properties working since the plugin does a simple string replacement.

I think I'll just go around the problem use cfg.json