AWS CLI- What is the syntax for assigning multiple values on a parameter - json

Question

For example, I have this CF template that ask for these parameters
----- cftemplate.yaml -----
...
Parameters:
**Subnet:
Description: Subnet for the Instance
Type: 'AWS::EC2::Subnet::Id'
SecurityGroups:
Description: Security Group for Instance
Type: 'List<AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup::Id>'**
...
Resources:
EC2Instance:
Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
Properties:
...
**SubnetId: !Ref Subnet
SecurityGroupIds: !Ref SecurityGroups**
...
----- cftemplate.yaml -----
For me to deploy the stack, I use this command:
aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name StackName --template-body file://cftemplate.yaml --parameters file://params.json
Where params.json contains:
----- params.json -----
[
{
"ParameterKey":"Subnet",
"ParameterValue":"subnet-11111111"
},
{
"ParameterKey":"SecurityGroups",
"ParameterValue":"sg-111111111",
"ParameterValue":"sg-222222222"
}
]
----- params.json -----
Now, my goal is to eliminate the use of .json file. Does anyone know the shorthand syntax of the command that should achieve the same effect as above command? Can't seem to find this on the documentations online. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The command line equivalent would be (little re-formatted for clarify):
aws cloudformation create-stack \
--stack-name StackName \
--template-body file://cftemplate.yaml \
--parameters ParameterKey=Subnet,ParameterValue=subnet-11111111 ParameterKey=SecurityGroups,ParameterValue=sg-111111111\\,sg-222222222
In the above attention to spaces and commas are important.
I verified the command using my own parameters and my sandbox account:
aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name StackName --template-body file://instance.yaml --parameters ParameterKey=Subnet,ParameterValue=subnet-0ae6ce0f9bbf52251 ParameterKey=SecurityGroups,ParameterValue=sg-06d2a3e9c8aa99620\\,sg-004d23d188ec1146f
which is correct and results in starting the process of deploying the stack:
{
"StackId": "arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:xxxxxx:stack/StackName/61fbacd0-d3b0-11ea-970a-0ad23187ddb2"
}

Answer 2

From the cli documentation,
$ aws cloudformation create-stack help
...
"--parameters" (list)
A list of "Parameter" structures that specify input parameters for
the stack. For more information, see the Parameter data type.
Shorthand Syntax:
ParameterKey=string,ParameterValue=string,UsePreviousValue=boolean,ResolvedValue=string ...
JSON Syntax:
[
{
"ParameterKey": "string",
"ParameterValue": "string",
"UsePreviousValue": true|false,
"ResolvedValue": "string"
}
...
]
...
where the list elements are separated by space.

Answer 3

you might want to take a look at the rain cli. It's developed but someone from the cloudformation team and it's much better than the aws cli.
https://github.com/aws-cloudformation/rain