# Knife solo data bag - Data Bag Items must contain a Hash or Mash!

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-solo-data-bag-data-bag-items-must-contain-a-hash-or-mash/5893>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [October 9, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-solo-data-bag-data-bag-items-must-contain-a-hash-or-mash/5893 "2014-10-09T18:54:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fletchowns](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/fletchowns/32/53_2.png) [@fletchowns](https://discourse.chef.io/u/fletchowns)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/knife-solo-data-bag-data-bag-items-must-contain-a-hash-or-mash/5893/1 "2014-10-09T18:54:06Z")

</div>

I am running into an error with knife solo data bag on Windows. I filed a  
bug [https://github.com/thbishop/knife-solo\_data\_bag/issues/21](https://github.com/thbishop/knife-solo_data_bag/issues/21) for it but  
hadn’t heard anything, wanted to see if anybody on the mailing list had run  
into this.

c:\my-chef-repo\>knife solo data bag create test test -e vi  
cygwin warning:  
MS-DOS style path detected:  
C:/Users/MYUSER~1/AppData/Local/Temp/knife-edit-20141001-1324-1s58ayi.json  
Preferred POSIX equivalent is:  
/cygdrive/c/Users/MYUSER~1/AppData/Local/Temp/knife-edit-20141001-1324-1s58ayi.json  
CYGWIN environment variable option “nodosfilewarning” turns off this warning.  
Consult the user’s guide for more details about POSIX paths:  
[http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#using-pathnames](http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#using-pathnames)  
Created data\_bag\_item[test]

c:\my-chef-repo\>knife solo data bag edit test test -e vi  
ERROR: Chef::Exceptions::ValidationFailed: Data Bag Items must contain  
a Hash or Mash!

The same error also happens when I create a data bag on the server and then  
knife download it and try to edit it with knife solo. I’m able to  
create/edit data bags that exist solely on the server just fine, just knife  
solo data bag that is giving me trouble.

Thanks!  
Greg