[Mike Krüger (mkrueger)]

Fixes #260.

Problem

index add /city/? failed with HTTP 400 ("The indexing path '/city/' could not be accepted"), although the same policy succeeded through index set and a direct SDK read-modify-write.

The root cause is in command-argument parsing, not the policy round trip: unquoted shell words stopped at the ? token, so /city/? was split into the arguments /city/ and ?. The incremental add therefore sent an invalid /city/ path to Cosmos DB. The full-policy index set worked because its paths are inside a quoted JSON string.

Fix

Treat ? as a shell-word continuation character in CommandShellWordParser, alongside /, *, :, etc. This applies to direct commands, exec, command expressions, and inline option values.

User-visible effects beyond indexing paths: unquoted words such as a?b, wildcard patterns like file?.csh, and URLs with query strings now stay single arguments instead of being split. A standalone ?, quoted strings, and statement separators are unchanged.

Tests

• Parser: /city/? is preserved across direct commands, exec, command expressions, inline option values, and ; statement boundaries, with correct source ranges.
• Execution: exec "echo" arguments match direct arguments for ?-containing paths and URLs.
• Offline policy round trip: service-returned metadata (indexes, isFullIndex, composite/spatial/vector/full-text indexes) is preserved exactly when adding a path.
• Emulator integration (IndexPolicyTests), using the selective policy from the issue with independent SDK readback:
  • the SDK read-modify-write control succeeds;
  • index add /city/? succeeds, and a repeated add is idempotent;
  • all other policy members are unchanged;
  • index remove /city/? restores the original policy.

Validation: both projects build; offline suite (Category!=Emulator) 4,894 passed / 5 skipped; emulator indexing tests pass. Verified against the local Windows emulator — not yet against the Linux vNext image from the issue. Readback confirms accepted configuration only, not emulator index-performance behavior.

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

No active review issues are recorded for the change preserving ? in unquoted shell arguments.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

Fixes #260 by preserving ? within unquoted shell arguments, allowing scalar indexing paths such as /city/? to reach Cosmos DB unchanged.

Changes:

• Updates shared argument parsing for direct commands, exec, command expressions, and inline option values.
• Adds parser, execution, policy-preservation, and emulator readback regression coverage.
• Documents unquoted indexing paths and distinguishes accepted policy metadata from emulator indexing-performance support.

File	Description
docs/​commands.md	Clarifies unquoted path support and readback limitations.
CosmosDBShell/​Azure.Data.Cosmos.Shell.Parser/​CommandShellWordParser.cs	Allows ? to continue an unquoted shell word.
CosmosDBShell.Tests/​Parser/​StatementParserStructureTests.cs	Covers command forms, source ranges, and statement boundaries.
CosmosDBShell.Tests/​Parser/​CommandExecutionTests.cs	Adds execution cases for paths and URLs containing ?.
CosmosDBShell.Tests/​Integration/​IndexPolicyTests.cs	Adds SDK control and readback checks for add, repeated add, and remove.
CosmosDBShell.Tests/​CommandTests/​DataPlaneCosmosResourceOperationsTests.cs	Checks policy metadata preservation through an incremental add.
CHANGELOG.md	Records the unquoted-argument parsing fix.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[github-code-quality]

Code coverage overview

Languages: C#

C# / code-coverage/dotnet

main c666573	dev/mkrueger/fix/260... 99b9995	+/-
72%	72%	0%

ℹ️ Calculations represent line coverage. Results may change as calculations are updated.