Improve “repeat” function¶

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/heat/+spec/improve-repeat-function

This specification improves the “repeat” intrinsic function.

Problem description¶

The “repeat” function now only supports to iterates over all the permutations of the elements in the given lists if more than one key/value pair is included in the for_each section. Similar to how nested loops work in most programming languages.

There are some user cases that user don’t want to loop nested when using “repeat” function. For example, there are some list parameters: networks, subnets and ips:

parameters:
  networks:
    type: comma_delimited_list
    default: "net1, net2, net3, ..., netn"
  subnets:
    type: comma_delimited_list
    default: "sub1, sub2, sub3, ..., subn"
  ips:
    type: comma_delimited_list
    default: "ip1, ip2, ip3, ..., ipn"

and user want to create a server with several nics:

resources:
  my_server:
    type: OS::Nova::Server
    properties:
      ..... //some properties
      networks:
      - network: net1
        subnet: sub1
        fixed_ip: ip1
      - network: net2
        subnet: sub2
        fixed_ip: ip2
      - network: net3
        subnet: sub3
        fixed_ip: ip3
      - ...
      ...

The “repeat” function is a good choose for this case. But now “repeat” function will do nested loops to iterate the over all the permutations of the elements in the given lists: [[net1, net2, net3, …],[sub1, sub2, sub3, …], [ip1, ip2, ip3, …]] Take the example of two items for each list:

...
networks:
  repeat:
    for_each:
      %net%: [net1, net2]
      %sub%: [sub1, sub2]
      %ip%: [ip1, ip2]
    template:
      network: %net%
      subnet: %sub%
      fixed_ip: %ip%

We will get the result after resolved the function:

[{'fixed_ip': 'ip1', 'network': 'net1', 'subnet': 'sub1'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip2', 'network': 'net1', 'subnet': 'sub1'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip1', 'network': 'net1', 'subnet': 'sub2'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip2', 'network': 'net1', 'subnet': 'sub2'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip1', 'network': 'net2', 'subnet': 'sub1'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip2', 'network': 'net2', 'subnet': 'sub1'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip1', 'network': 'net2', 'subnet': 'sub2'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip2', 'network': 'net2', 'subnet': 'sub2']

But what the user want is two nics:

[{'fixed_ip': 'ip1', 'network': 'net1', 'subnet': 'sub1'},
 {'fixed_ip': 'ip2', 'network': 'net2', 'subnet': 'sub2']

Proposed change¶

This proposal improves the “repeat” function to support above the user case. Add a boolean flag section “permutations” for “repeat”, and the default value is ‘True’ to make sure the compatibility. Then the “repeat” function would be used as follows:

resources:
   my_server:
     type: OS::Nova::Server
     properties:
       (...other properties)
       networks:
         repeat:
           permutations: False
           for_each:
             %net%: { get_param: nets }
             %sub%: { get_param: subnets }
             %ip%: {get_param: ips}
           template:
             network: %net%
             subnet: %sub%
             fixed_ip: %ip%

As above, set the section ‘permutations’ to False, then the result of the function will satisfy the user’s requirement.

Notes:: There is a constraint for it: the length of lists should be equal.

Alternatives¶

None

Implementation¶

Assignee(s)¶

Primary assignee:: huangtianhua@huawei.com

Milestones¶

Target Milestone for completion:: Pike-1

Work Items¶

Add “permutations” section for repeat function, and implement the new replacement method.
Documentation.
Add related tests.
Add template examples.

Dependencies¶