Ansible pass dictionary from python script

ansible

I am running a Ansible script that calls a python script, which manipulates some data and turns it into a dictionary. I want to redirect the python dictionary to a register and then use it replace sections of a json file. My script fails without any messages. I can run the python script by itself and it prints out the dictionary.

What am I doing wrong?
Is this the best way to do this?
Is it better to use shell, command or script to call python scripts?

pyscript.py
pydict[pykey] = pyvalue
print (pydict)


ansiblescript.yml
---
- hosts: 10.215.237.238
  tasks:  

  - name : Gather info
    shell: '/usr/bin/python /home/devoper/scripts/pyscript.py'
    register: pydict


  - name: Insert Info
    replace:
      destfile: /home/devoper/scripts/template.json
      regexp: "KEY1"
      replace: "{{ pydict.pykey }}"
      backup: yes

Thank you for your time.

Best Answer

Registered Variables have its own key, which you can see if you execute ansible-playbook with -vvv option. You cannot store the dictionary into regitered variables directly.

It depends on what you need to achieve, but my suggestion would be as follows:

Create custom ansible module.
Execute custom module and store returned values.
Use those values as a dictionary.

Create custom ansible module

ansiblescript.yml
|_library
|_customized_pyscript.py

#!/usr/bin/python

from ansible.module_utils.basic import *

def main():

    module = AnsibleModule(argument_spec={})
    pydict = {"key1": "result1"}
    module.exit_json(changed=False, meta=pydict)

if __name__ == '__main__':  
    main()

Execute custom module and store returned values

ansiblescript.yml

---
- hosts: 10.215.237.238
  tasks:
- name: Gather info
  customized_pyscript:
  register: pydict

Use those values as a dictionary

ansiblescript.yml

- name: Insert Info
  replace:
    destfile: /home/devoper/scripts/template.json
    regexp: "KEY1"
    replace: "{{ pydict.meta.KEY1 }}"
    backup: yes

Related Solutions

Ansible playbook to upload and execute a python script

I have used a similar playbook which works as expected:

# playbook.yml
---
- hosts: ${target}
  sudo: yes

  tasks:
  - name: Copy file
    copy: src=../files/test.py dest=/opt/test.py owner=howardsandford group=admin mode=755

  - name: Execute script
    command: /opt/test.py

And test.py:

#!/usr/bin/python

# write to a file
f = open('/tmp/test_from_python','w')
f.write('hi there\n')

Running the playboook:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --extra-vars "target=the_host_to_run_script_on"

Shows:

PLAY [the_host_to_run_script_on] ***************************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [the_host_to_run_script_on]

TASK: [Copy file] *************************************************************
changed: [the_host_to_run_script_on]

TASK: [Execute script] ********************************************************
changed: [the_host_to_run_script_on]

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
the_host_to_run_script_on  : ok=3    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0

And on the remote host:

$ cat /tmp/test_from_python
hi there

Several differences between our setup:

I don't have single quotes around the copy and command parameters
The shebang sets the python interpreter rather than specifying /usr/bin/python from the command line
I set the owner of the script to my own username and primary group that is in sudoers, rather than root

Hopefully this can point you in the right direction of where the differences might be.

How to see stdout of ansible commands

I think you can register the result to a variable, then print with debug.

- name: print to stdout
  command: echo "hello"
  register: hello

- debug: msg="{{ hello.stdout }}"

- debug: msg="{{ hello.stderr }}"