Ansible Console Output – How to Shorten ‘Item’ Value

ansible

I'm struggling with the title for this question, so feel free to edit it to make it more meaningful.

Let's say you have a task in Ansible and you register the output. For example:

- name: Set up working directory
  shell: mktemp -d
  register: workdir

And I want to use the registered output to do another task. For example:

- name: Create a file
  with_items: "{{ workdir.stdout }}"
  shell: touch {{ item }}/test-file

That all works great. Now, I want to loop both tasks N times. (I know I could extract this into a separate yaml file, and use include_tasks combined with loop, but I don't want to have two playbooks.) Thus, I update to:

- name: Set up working directory
  shell: mktemp -d
  register: workdir
  loop:
  - 1
  - 2

As a result of the loop, the workdir variable has taken a different structure, so iterating through it is now slightly different. For example:

- name: Create a file
  with_items: "{{ workdir.results }}"
  shell: touch {{ item.stdout }}/test-file

When the playbook is running, the Ansible console displays the entire value for "item" on each iteration. That makes the output noisy and difficult for a human to parse visually. For example:

TASK [Create a file] ***************************************************
changed: [localhost] => (item={'cmd': 'mktemp -d', 'stdout': '/tmp/tmp.a
ncF0iBqzP', 'stderr': '', 'rc': 0, 'start': '2023-05-26 15:22:46.458962'
, 'end': '2023-05-26 15:22:46.465557', 'delta': '0:00:00.006595', 'chang
ed': True, 'invocation': {'module_args': {'_raw_params': 'mktemp -d', '_
uses_shell': True, 'warn': True, 'stdin_add_newline': True, 'strip_empty
_ends': True, 'argv': None, 'chdir': None, 'executable': None, 'creates'
: None, 'removes': None, 'stdin': None}}, 'stdout_lines': ['/tmp/tmp.anc
F0iBqzP'], 'stderr_lines': [], 'failed': False, 'item': 1, 'ansible_loop
_var': 'item'})
changed: [localhost] => (item={'cmd': 'mktemp -d', 'stdout': '/tmp/tmp.v
Tpkvx6RK0', 'stderr': '', 'rc': 0, 'start': '2023-05-26 15:22:46.727879'
, 'end': '2023-05-26 15:22:46.734876', 'delta': '0:00:00.006997', 'chang
ed': True, 'invocation': {'module_args': {'_raw_params': 'mktemp -d', '_
uses_shell': True, 'warn': True, 'stdin_add_newline': True, 'strip_empty
_ends': True, 'argv': None, 'chdir': None, 'executable': None, 'creates'
: None, 'removes': None, 'stdin': None}}, 'stdout_lines': ['/tmp/tmp.vTp
kvx6RK0'], 'stderr_lines': [], 'failed': False, 'item': 2, 'ansible_loop
_var': 'item'})

Here's my question:

Is there a way to

  • abbreviate the output of 'item' in the Ansible console output?
  • change the loop so that it iterates differently, like:
with_items: "{{ workdir.results.*.stdout }}"
shell: touch {{ item }}/test-file
  • some filter that can modify the items?
  • some other clever solution?

Best Answer

There are more options:

shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: localhost

  tasks:

    - command: mktemp -d
      register: workdir
      with_sequence: end=2

    - command: "touch {{ item.stdout }}/test-file" 
      loop: "{{ workdir.results }}"
      loop_control:
        label: "{{ item.stdout }}"

gives

shell> ansible_playbook pb.yml

PLAY [localhost] *****************************************************************************

TASK [command] *******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => (item=1)
changed: [localhost] => (item=2)

TASK [command] *******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => (item=/tmp/tmp.2pOVwfrYLI)
changed: [localhost] => (item=/tmp/tmp.FyF0JCghAo)

PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
localhost: ok=2    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
  • Optionally, create a list of the directories first
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: localhost

  vars:

    workdirs: "{{ workdir.results|map(attribute='stdout') }}"

  tasks:

    - command: mktemp -d
      register: workdir
      with_sequence: end=2

    - command: "touch {{ item }}/test-file" 
      loop: "{{ workdirs }}"

gives the same

shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml

PLAY [localhost] *****************************************************************************

TASK [command] *******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => (item=1)
changed: [localhost] => (item=2)

TASK [command] *******************************************************************************
changed: [localhost] => (item=/tmp/tmp.OOHLqAfFlX)
changed: [localhost] => (item=/tmp/tmp.T5lF2ZruwZ)

PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
localhost: ok=2    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Notes:

- hosts: localhost

  vars:

    workdirs: "{{ workdir.results|map(attribute='path') }}"

  tasks:

    - tempfile:
        state: directory
      register: workdir
      with_sequence: end=2

    - file:
        state: touch
        path: "{{ item }}/test-file" 
      loop: "{{ workdirs }}"

    - file:
        state: absent
        path: "{{ item }}"
      loop: "{{ workdirs }}"
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