We have a client that has a carriage return in it so that whenever I try to delete it using knife client delete "clientname\n" or knife client bulk delete "clientname\n" or knife client bulk delete "clientname.*" it returns an error:

ERROR: URI::InvalidURIError: bad URI(is not URI?): "https://chef.domain.com/organizations/organizationname/clients/clientname\n"

I'd like to find a way to delete that client but every method I try comes back to having problems with the \n.

We have a client that has a carriage return in it so that whenever I try to delete it using knife client delete "clientname\n" or knife client bulk delete "clientname\n" or knife client bulk delete "clientname.*" it returns an error:

ERROR: URI::InvalidURIError: bad URI(is not URI?): "https://chef.domain.com/organizations/organizationname/clients/clientname\n"

I'd like to find a way to delete that client but every method I try comes back to having problems with the \n.

It is possible that other illegal characters in the node or client name can cause similar issues. 

Please use the resolution steps below to remove both types of malformed node and client names.

We will start with the easiest commands and then use our last resort of modifying the pgsql database.

Using knife together with an administrator level user, we can issue the knife raw command:

# Delete the offending node name
knife raw -M delete /nodes/BAD_NODENAME

#Delete the offending client name
knife raw -M delete /clients/BAD_CLIENTNAME

If none of the above attempts work, then we should have success with updating the node and client names in the pgsql database directly, and then we can use knife to successfully delete the node and client afterward.

For the below pgsql steps, Replace NODENAME with the actual name of node, NODE_ID with actual ID from the nodes table.

sudo su - opscode-pgsql

psql -U opscode-pgsql opscode_chef

\d

SELECT * FROM nodes WHERE name='NODENAME';

#Make certain you are selecting the desired node, then

UPDATE nodes
SET name = 'goodnodename' 
WHERE name = 'badnodename';

\q
exit

You can get out of the psql tool with \q

Alternatively, you can find the offending name with a partial match. For example, for a node that starts with the letters "win" you could find it like so, noting the ID value returned:

SELECT id, name FROM nodes WHERE name LIKE 'win%';

Then, you can update the node name via the node id from above, like so:

UPDATE nodes
SET name = 'goodnodename' 
WHERE id = NODE_ID;

Lastly, these same commands also apply to clients. Replace the table name of nodes with clients and everything else should be self-explanatory (e.g., client name instead of node name.)

When you have changed the names to something valid, you can remove the node and clients using knife:

knife node delete NODENAME
knife client delete CLIENTNAME