.TH "GCLOUD_TOPIC_ESCAPING" 1



.SH "NAME"
.HP
gcloud topic escaping \- list/dictionary\-type argument escaping supplementary help



.SH "DESCRIPTION"

List/dictionary\-type argument escaping supplementary help.

\fBgcloud\fR supports list\-type and dictionary\-type flags that take one
argument which is a list of one or more comma\-separated items:

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=value1,value2,value3
.RE

.RS 2m
\-\-dict\-flag=key1=value1,key2=value2
.RE

In the case of a dict\-type flag, each item is a key\-value pair separated by
\'='. If more than one '=' is present, the first is used.

In order to include commas in your arguments, specify an alternate delimiter
using the following syntax:

.RS 2m
^DELIM^flag value, with comma
.RE

where \fIDELIM\fR is a sequence of one or more characters that may not appear in
any value in the list.

NOTE: In cmd.exe and PowerShell on Windows, \f5^\fR is a special character and
you must escape it by repeating it. In the following examples, every time you
see \f5^\fR, replace it with \f5^^^^\fR.



.SH "EXAMPLES"

In these examples, a list\-type or dictionary\-type flag is given, along with a
shell comment explaining how it is parsed. The parsed flags are shown here using
Python\-style list or dict formats (in other languages, what Python calls
"dicts" are often called "associative arrays," "maps," or "hashes").

Basic example:

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=^:^a,b:c,d # => ['a,b', 'c,d']
.RE

Multi\-character delimiters are allowed:

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=^\-\-^a\-,b\-\-c # => ['a\-,b', 'c']
.RE

Just one '^' has no special meaning:

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=^a,b,c # => ['^a', 'b', 'c']
.RE

This is an alternative way of starting with '^':

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=^,^^a,b,c # => ['^a', 'b', 'c']
.RE

A '^' anywhere but the start has no special meaning:

.RS 2m
\-\-list\-flag=a^:^,b,c # => ['a^:^', 'b', 'c']
.RE

Dictionary\-type arguments work exactly the same as list\-type arguments:

.RS 2m
\-\-dict\-flag=^:^a=b,c:d=f,g # => {'a': 'b,c', 'd': 'f,g'}
.RE

To reserve ephemeral IP addresses, passed in as a list, which are being used by
virtual machine instances in the us\-central1 region, run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute addresses create \e
  \-\-addresses ^:^123.456.789.198:22.333.146.189:789.312.645 \e
  \-\-region us\-central1
.RE

To create a Google Compute Engine virtual machine instance with metadata as a
list ({'key1': '"value1"', 'key2': 'value2', 'key3':
\'value3Index1,value3Index2', 'key4': 'value4'), run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute instances create example\-instance1 \e
  \-\-metadata \e
  ^:^key1="value1":key2=value2:key3=value3Index1,value3Index2,\e
valueIndex3:key4=value4
.RE



.SH "NOTES"

These variants are also available:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud alpha topic escaping
.RE

.RS 2m
$ gcloud beta topic escaping
.RE