How to add variables with command line in ansible?

Question

i have to playbook for tower-cli command, which will create credentials with custom credentials type.

     - name: Create a valid SCM credential from a private_key file
   shell:
     cmd: tower-cli credential create --organization "Default" --name "DevOps User" --credential-type "csa-test2" --inputs "{'user':'devops','stg01_ssh_key':\"$( sed -z 's/\n/\\n/g' test.pem )\"}"
   no_log: false

This code is working prefectly, ssh file is aligned in the correct format.

As my code is quite messy, i added the sed command as variable, and passed that variable to cmd module like below.

---
- name: Trigger an Atower API
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars:
     keyy: $( sed -z 's/^//' test.pem )

  tasks:
     - name: Create a valid SCM credential from a private_key file
       shell:
         cmd: tower-cli credential create --organization "Default" --name "DevOps User" --credential-type "csa-test2" --inputs "{'user':'devops','stg01_ssh_key':'{{ keyy }}'}"
       no_log: false

SSH file is not aligned like before input. To do this alignment i have used the sed command. What I am doing wrong here?

Rather than posting a question on the same subject with very minor variations several time, you should explain precisely what your are trying to do, giving the structure of the project (on all 4 questions I still did not understand where your `pem` files are stored...) and give an accurate example of what your final command is suppose to look like, explaining which values are suppose to expand in ansible and which in shell. I'm almost sure we have a sort of [xy problem](https://xyproblem.info/) here. — Zeitounator, Jan 11 '21 at 16:21

P.... · Answer 1 · 2021-01-11T16:22:11.213

You cannot run the shell command using process substitution$(...) in vars. Although you can use lookup (2nd solution).

1st approach:

You can add a task to process the key using sed or by native approach and use it later by calling keyy.stdout.

---
- name: Trigger an Atower API
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local


  tasks:
     - name:  Process the key file
       shell: sed -z 's/^//' test.pem
       register: keyy

     - name: Create a valid SCM credential from a private_key file
       shell:
         cmd: tower-cli credential create --organization "Default" --name "DevOps User" --credential-type "csa-test2" --inputs "{'user':'devops','stg01_ssh_key':'{{ keyy.stdout }}'}"
       no_log: false

2nd approach: If you really do not want to have an additional task for parsing keyy. This is using pipe/lookup. but this approach is fragile as compared to the one above.

---
- name: Trigger an Atower API
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars:
    keyy: >-
      {{ lookup('pipe', 'sed -z "s/^//g" test.pem') }}

  tasks:
  - name: Create a valid SCM credential from a private_key file
    shell:
    cmd: tower-cli credential create --organization "Default" --name "DevOps User" --credential-type "csa-test2" --inputs "{'user':'devops','stg01_ssh_key':'{{ keyy }}'}"
    no_log: false

How to add variables with command line in ansible?

1 Answers1