Setting environment variable in Heroku (via powershell) with special characters

Question

Django 1.8, Heroku, Powershell.

I'm trying to set an Environment Variable for my django secret key in Heroku:

(venv) PS WORKFOLDER> heroku config:set SECRET_KEY=eoik6-&dnr9elgmrt7-%3hu_&37$3hg!9c6x!^khjr3!z*z&b4

I'm getting this error msg (3 times - since I have 3 ampersands in the string):

At line:1 char:77
+ heroku config:set SECRET_KEY=eoik6-&dnr9elgmrt7-%3hu_&37$3hg!9c6x!^khjr3!z*z&b4
+                                                                             ~
The ampersand (&) character is not allowed. The & operator is reserved for future use; wrap an ampersand in double
quotation marks ("&") to pass it as part of a string.
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : AmpersandNotAllowed

When I tried the suggested solution (to put double quotes around the ampersands):

(venv) PS WORKFOLDER> heroku config:set SECRET_KEY=eoik6-"&"dnr9elgmrt7-%3hu_"&"37$3hg!9c6x!^khjr3!z*z"&"b4

I got this error:

SECRET_KEY: eoik6-
'dnr9elgmrt7-%3hu_' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
'37$3hg!9c6x!^khjr3!z*z' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
'b4' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I also tried escaping with slash, putting quotes around the whole string, etc. Same result. So how can I set my environment variable?

Answer 1

I just tried a few things and it works when you put single quotes around the whole VALUE (and double quotes around the ampersands):

heroku config:set SECRET_KEY='eoik6-"&"dnr9elgmrt7-%3hu_"&"37$3hg!9c6x!^khjr3!z*z"&"b4'

verifiable by the command heroku config