backport of commit 71ea1deda707b706c36da7567caba7721e51db19 (#19444)

Co-authored-by: James Rasell <jrasell@users.noreply.github.com>

.changelog/19423.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:bug
+cli: Fix a bug in the `var put` command which prevented combining items as CLI arguments and other parameters as flags
+```

command/var_put.go

@@ -393,6 +393,13 @@ func (c *VarPutCommand) makeVariable(path string) (*api.Variable, error) {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown format flag value")
 	}
 
+	// It is possible a specification file was used which did not declare any
+	// items. Therefore, default the entry to avoid panics and ensure this type
+	// of use is valid.
+	if out.Items == nil {
+		out.Items = make(map[string]string)
+	}
+
 	// Handle cases where values are provided by CLI flags that modify the
 	// the created variable. Typical of a "copy" operation, it is a convenience
 	// to reset the Create and Modify metadata to zero.

command/var_put_test.go

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ package command
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"os"
 	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
@@ -107,6 +108,40 @@ func TestVarPutCommand_GoodJson(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Equal(t, api.VariableItems{"k1": "v1", "k2": "v2"}, outVar.Items)
 }
 
+func TestVarPutCommand_FlagsWithSpec(t *testing.T) {
+	ci.Parallel(t)
+
+	// Create a server
+	srv, _, url := testServer(t, true, nil)
+	defer srv.Shutdown()
+
+	ui := cli.NewMockUi()
+	cmd := &VarPutCommand{Meta: Meta{Ui: ui}}
+
+	// Create a temporary file and ensure the proper cleanup is run once the
+	// test ends.
+	osFile, err := os.CreateTemp("", "nomad-cli-var-put-test-*.hcl")
+	must.NoError(t, err)
+
+	t.Cleanup(func() {
+		_ = osFile.Close()
+		_ = os.Remove(osFile.Name())
+	})
+
+	// Write out a partial spec that includes the namespace and variable path.
+	_, err = osFile.Write([]byte("path      = \"path/to/variable\"\nnamespace = \"default\""))
+	must.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// Create the variables, ensure we clean it up, and check the command
+	// response.
+	code := cmd.Run([]string{"-address=" + url, "@" + osFile.Name(), "k1=v1", "k2=v2"})
+	must.Zero(t, code)
+
+	must.StrContains(t, ui.OutputWriter.String(), "path/to/variable")
+	must.StrContains(t, ui.OutputWriter.String(), "\"k1\": \"v1\"")
+	must.StrContains(t, ui.OutputWriter.String(), "\"k2\": \"v2\"")
+}
+
 func TestVarPutCommand_AutocompleteArgs(t *testing.T) {
 	ci.Parallel(t)
 	srv, client, url := testServer(t, true, nil)