From 8dbd7b423b685d8e3e1913ebdc2197301e0640e3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Josef Scheibel <scheibel1@llnl.gov>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:02:06 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] add placeholders for assigning collection types

---
 lib/spack/spack/repo.py                        |  6 ++++++
 lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py             | 11 +++++++++--
 lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py | 14 +++++++++-----
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/repo.py b/lib/spack/spack/repo.py
index 1d2eb4a083a..05ae85be04d 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/repo.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/repo.py
@@ -1374,6 +1374,12 @@ def get_pkg_class(self, pkg_name):
         # sets attributes that it used to)
         new_overidden_attrs = {}
         for key, val in new_cfg_settings.items():
+            if hasattr(cls, key):
+                new_overidden_attrs[key] = getattr(cls, key)
+            if isinstance(val, list):
+                raise spack.config.ConfigError("Unsupported attribute value: list")
+            elif isinstance(val, dict):
+                raise spack.config.ConfigError("Unsupported attribute value: dict")
             if key not in ["git", "url", "submodules"]:
                 # Infer type
                 val = yaml.load(val)
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py b/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
index 57a20e6ee57..cae3fd52e8d 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
@@ -99,8 +99,15 @@
                             },
                         },
                         "patternProperties": {
-                            r"\w[\w-]*": {
-                                "type": "string",
+                            r"\w+": {
+                                "oneOf": [
+                                    {"type": "string"},
+                                    {"type": "array", "items": {"type": "string"}},
+                                    {
+                                        "type": "object",
+                                        "patternProperties": {r"\w+": {"type": "string"}},
+                                    },
+                                ]
                             },
                         },
                     },
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py b/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
index a80cb1a8590..4d9b2a4a767 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ def test_preferred_providers(self):
         spec = concretize("mpileaks")
         assert "zmpi" in spec
 
-    def test_config_set_url_for_package(self, mutable_mock_repo):
+    def test_config_set_pkg_property_url(self, mutable_mock_repo):
         """Test preferred providers of virtual packages are
         applied correctly
         """
@@ -195,10 +195,8 @@ def test_config_set_url_for_package(self, mutable_mock_repo):
         spec = concretize("mpileaks")
         assert spec.package.fetcher[0].url == "http://www.llnl.gov/mpileaks-2.3.tar.gz"
 
-    def test_config_set_package_property(self, mutable_mock_repo):
-        """Test preferred providers of virtual packages are
-        applied correctly
-        """
+    def test_config_set_pkg_property_new(self, mutable_mock_repo):
+        """Test that you can set arbitrary attributes on the Package class"""
         update_packages(
             "mpileaks",
             "package_attributes",
@@ -208,6 +206,12 @@ def test_config_set_package_property(self, mutable_mock_repo):
         assert spec.package.x == 1
         assert spec.package.y == True
 
+    def test_config_set_pkg_property_collecton_unsupported(self, mutable_mock_repo):
+        """Test that an error is raised if you attempt to assign a list value"""
+        update_packages("mpileaks", "package_attributes", {"x": ["a", "b"]})
+        with pytest.raises(ConfigError):
+            spec = concretize("mpileaks")
+
     def test_preferred(self):
         """ "Test packages with some version marked as preferred=True"""
         spec = Spec("python")