python binding for GetMetadata() fails when value contains '='

[richarda@…]

I am trying to use gdal python binding to work with MODIS
(http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov) satellite imagery (HDF4) files. These files
contain text file attributes which are very long (20kB-40kB typically). 
Some attributes are multiline metadata files with many lines of the form 
'KEYWORD = VALUE'.

GDAL (1.1.9) python bindings fail (wrong result) when parsing these metadata
entries. I expect it is a side effect of using a text 'name=value'
implementation, as the first '=' character would throw the whole parser into a
spin. As such it would not be limited to just python. I have not tested other
bindings.

[warmerdam]

Richard, 

I have tried to reproduce this problem producing my own metadata and reading
it back in a Python script but everything seemed to work fine. 

Could you point me to an HDF file that reproduces the problem, and give me
a snipped of code to demonstrate it? 

I used this script which seemed to work fine. 

#!/usr/bin/env python

import gdal

ds = gdal.Open('metawrk.tif',gdal.GA_Update)

value = 'def=%s\nghi=%s' % ('abc','123')
md = { 'key' : value }

ds.SetMetadata( md )

ds = None

ds = gdal.Open('metawrk.tif',gdal.GA_Update)

print ds.GetMetadata()

ds = None

[richarda@…]

value of attribute named 'CoreMetadata.0'

[richarda@…]

The attachment for 'CoreMetadata.0' is a long multi-lined ODL file. This entire
text file is the value of the attribute named 'CoreMetadata.0' of type char.

[warmerdam]

Richard, 

I saved your attachment to a text file, and used it as the "value" in my
little python script and it seemed to work properly.  I am not convinced the
issue is the core metadata handling code in C or in the python bindings.  

[warmerdam]

Without more information I am unable to reproduce this.  Closing the bug report.
If you can reproduce with the gdal 1.2.0a code base then please reopen the
bug report with details.