Python YAML hiera and how have value be inside double quotes?

Question

I have this code

python_data_struct = {
        'amazon_app_id': amazon_app_id,
        'librivox_rest_url': librivox_rest_url,
        'librivox_id': librivox_id,
        'top': top,
        'pacakge': 'junk',
        'version': 'junk',
        'password': password,
        'description': description,
        'long_description': long_description,
        'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': '\"%{::appname}\"'
}
try:
        myyaml = yaml.dump(python_data_struct)
except:
        e = sys.exc_info()[0]
        print "Error on %s Error [%s]" % ( librivox_rest_url, e )
        sys.exit(5)
write_file( myyaml, hiera_dir + '/' + appname + '.yaml' );

It outputs yaml that looks like this:

{amazon_app_id: junk, description: !!python/unicode ' Riley was an American writer
    known as the "Hoosier poet", and made a start writing newspaper verse in Hoosier
    dialect for the Indianapolis Journal in 1875. His favorite authors were Burns
    and Dickens. This collection of poems is a romanticized and mostly boy-centered
    paean to a 19th century rural American working-class childhood. (Summary by Val
    Grimm)', librivox_id: '1000', librivox_rest_url: 'https://librivox.org/api/feed/audiobooks/id/1000/extended/1/format/json',
  long_description: !!python/unicode "\n Riley was an American writer known as the\
    \ \"Hoosier poet\", and made a start writing newspaper verse in Hoosier dialect\
    \ for the Indianapolis Journal in 1875. His favorite authors were Burns and Dickens.\
    \ This collection of poems is a romanticized and mostly boy-centered paean to\
    \ a 19th century rural American working-class childhood. (Summary by Val Grimm)\n\
    \nThe \"Selected Riley Child-Rhymes\" App will not use up your data plan's minutes\
    \ by downloading the audio files (mp3) over and over. You will download load all\
    \ the data when you install the App. The \"Selected Riley Child-Rhymes\" App works\
    \ even in airplane mode and in places without Wi-Fi or phone network access! So\
    \ you can listen to your audio book anywhere anytime! The \"Selected Riley Child-Rhymes\"\
    \ App automatically pauses when you make or receive a phone call and automatically\
    \ resumes after the call ends. The \"Selected Riley Child-Rhymes\" App will continue\
    \ to play until you exit the App or pause the reading so it is perfect for listening\
    \ in bed, at the gym, or while driving into work.\" \n", 'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': '"%{::appname}"',
  pacakge: junk, password: junk, top: junk, version: junk}

It is hard to see but the particular key/value pair that is a problem is this one:

'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': '"%{::appname}"',

I need to it to be this:

'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': "%{::appname}",

Just double quotes around %{::appname} I cannot figure out what to do in my python code. Please help :)

Answer 1

If you want a string in YAML, then you just need a string in Python:

python_data_struct = {
    'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': '%{::appname}'
}

print yaml.dump(python_data_struct)

Which gives you:

{'make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname': '%{::appname}'}

Or equivalently, with default_flow_style=False:

make_audiobook::sftp_script::appname: '%{::appname}'

There is no different in YAML between "a value" using double quotes and 'a value' using single quotes. This:

my_key: 'my value'

And this:

my_key: "my value"

Will both evaluate to the exact same data structure.