[regression] Multipass exec command does not work with ""

[albertlorente-aimsun]

Describe the bug
Before the 1.12.0 version I can execute this command without problems:

multipass exec test -- ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t ed25519 -f /home/ubuntu/.ssh/id_rsa -N '' -q

But with the last update, all after '' are not executed (the '' either). If I run the command inside the multipass instance, it works fine!

The command does not work because the answer is: "option requires an argument -- N"

To Reproduce
How, and what happened?

1. Try to execute multipass exec test -- ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t ed25519 -f /home/ubuntu/.ssh/id_rsa -N '' -q and see that the -q option is not take in care

Additional info

• OS:
  Ubuntu 18.04

• multipass version
  multipass 1.12.0
  multipassd 1.12.0

• multipass info --all
  Name: test
  State: Running
  IPv4: 10.56.33.196
  Release: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS
  Image hash: 8dd2e6b5e5aa (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)
  CPU(s): 5
  Load: 0.00 0.03 0.02
  Disk usage: 1.2GiB out of 29.0GiB
  Memory usage: 130.9MiB out of 15.7GiB
  Mounts: --

• multipass get local.driver
  qemu

[luis4a0]

Hi @albertlorente-aimsun, I am not able to reproduce your bug. Executing the command you mentioned in Multipass 1.12.0 on Linux, with the qemu driver, on a 18.04.6 instance is working for me. Can you specify what shell are you using, in the host and in the instance? Thanks!

[luis4a0]

@albertlorente-aimsun Another thing: you mention in the title that the issue is about double quotes, and also use double quotes in the description of the bug after the command-line you execute. Can you please clarify where are the double quotes in the command? Thanks!

[albertlorente-aimsun]

Hi Luis! Sorry for the bad explanation. Here I attach some snapshots to explain the bug more accurancy

The spec of the machine are:

Then, if I run the following command, you can see that the -q option is not take in care (appear some text in the terminal). The "" of the -N argument either
multipass exec test-machine -- ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t ed25519 -f /home/ubuntu/.ssh/id_rsa -N "" -q

But, if I set a passphrase (-N) like "QA", then the -q option works fine
multipass exec test-machine -- ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t ed25519 -f /home/ubuntu/.ssh/id_rsa -N "QA" -q

[luis4a0]

Hi @albertlorente-aimsun, thanks a lot for clarifying! This gives us a much better idea of what's happening and we are aiming to provide a fix for this as soon as possible.

[albertlorente-aimsun]

Hi Luis! one question, can I return to the RC version? I've tried to remove multipass 1.12.0 and install again with snap install multipass --beta but 1.12.0 version is installed. Thanks!

[luis4a0]

@albertlorente-aimsun All the snap channels are set to retrieve Multipass 1.12.0. You can try with snap revert multipass to go back to the previously installed version.