it is inaccurate to export the inventory with environment variables

[immarvin]

We import an inventory with environment variables , then we expect we can get the updated inventory file with environment variables on export, we have implemented this. But in most of the time, the exported inventory is misleading, which does not exactly restore the inventory file imported.

I think we need to consider to export the raw inventory without any reverse environment substitution.

[immarvin]

@robin2008 @whowutwut @zet809 @xuweibj , any thoughts?

[zet809]

hi, @immarvin , can you give some example here? Do you mean the export inventory file failed to replace a string back to environment variable?

[robin2008]

@immarvin here you mean to extra the variables from osimage definition in xcat DB?

Variables are normally used when applying the code pattern, aka import. In this case, the variables itself will be stored into source control too.

For export, I thought there might be two potential use cases:

• export as backup/restore (No needs to do any special handling, keep it the same as it is imported)
• export and publish to public hub for sharing (Maybe Admin decision to export which variables)

As the export case is very limited, need to dig out what's required.