How to replace shell module with command module in Ansible?

Question

I need one small help.

In below example I need to replace shell with command module. But I am confused as command is not working with pipe.

So please give me the solution of this task. E.g:

- name: Get the version
  become: true
  run_once: true
  shell: zypper pa | grep eric-odl | awk -F {'print $4'}
  register: odl_version

How I will split this task because each command output is dependent on next command?

U880D · Answer 1 · 2023-04-26T08:39:52.590

I need to replace shell with command module.

Maybe you can provide more background information about the why and what you try to achieve.

Currently I guess according man zypper you try to

packages (pa) [options] [repository]...

List all available packages or all packages from specified repositories. Similar to zypper search -s -t package.

first and like to proceed further with something afterwards.

But I am confused command is not working with pipe.

Right, that is the case and the intended behavior. See in example

command module – Execute commands on targets

The command(s) will not be processed through the shell, so variables like $HOSTNAME and operations like "*", "<", ">", "|", ";" and "&" will not work. Use the ansible.builtin.shell module if you need these features.
shell module – Execute shell commands on targets

It is almost exactly like the ansible.builtin.command module but runs the command through a shell (/bin/sh) on the remote node.
Whats the difference between ansible raw, shell and command?

So please give me the solution of this task

There will be not "that solution" but you may have a look into the following list from most to least preferable approaches:

Using package_facts module in order to get package information as facts
Evaluate zypper module in order to manage packages on SUSE and openSUSE
Using the zypper command in an other syntax which doesn't need grep and or awk like in
Or writing an own Custom Module
Or using script module in order to run a local script on a Remote Node after transferring it

Or, at least, just stay with shell for commands with pipes (and your given example as it is currently)

How to replace shell module with command module in Ansible?

1 Answers1