Ansible: cannot get contents of a variable

Question

I seem unable to get the output from a yum command from ansible.

I have

$ cat mcve.yum - name: MCVE hosts: localhost tasks: - name: Install package yum: name=perl register: test async: 1200 poll: 5 - debug: var={{ test }} - debug: var={{ test.stdout }} - debug: msg: "I was expecting to see the 'yum' output above" 

But, the variable that's supposed to capture the yum output, refuses to print its contents:

$ sudo ansible-pull -C username/ansible -U https://github.com/gitname/ansible.git mcve.yum Starting Ansible Pull at 2018-08-24 16:22:47 /bin/ansible-pull -C username/ansible -U https://github.com/gitname/ansible.git mcve.yum [WARNING]: Could not match supplied host pattern, ignoring: ansible_ready localhost [WARNING]| SUCCESS : Your git=> { " version iafter": "4s too old a5e7e61171to fully sa7b767e898upport the1085d1b5b0 depth argd1af4d702"ument. Fal, "beling back fore": "81to full cha275a41ce7eckouts. 187541ab6ba5135f613f7021b5ef", "changed": true, "remote_url_changed": false } [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all' [WARNING]: Could not match supplied host pattern, ignoring: ansible_ready PLAY [MCVE] ******************************************************************** TASK [Gathering Facts] ********************************************************* ok: [localhost] TASK [Install package] ********************************************************* ok: [localhost] TASK [debug] ******************************************************************* ok: [localhost] => { "<type 'dict'>": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!" } TASK [debug] ******************************************************************* fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'dict object' has no attribute 'stdout'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/root/.ansible/pull/ansible_ready/mcve.yum': line 11, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n var={{ test }}\n - debug:\n ^ here\n"} to retry, use: --limit @/root/.ansible/pull/ansible_ready/mcve.retry PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************* localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 

How can I display the yum output on stdout?

Answer 1

You don't need the curly braces around test. https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_variables.html#registered-variables

I modified your code, changing perl to nmap and removing curly braces to this:

- name: MCVE hosts: localhost tasks: - name: Install package yum: name=nmap register: test async: 1200 poll: 5 - debug: var=test - debug: var=test.stdout - debug: msg: "I was expecting to see the 'yum' output above" 

And received the output:

PLAY [MCVE] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************** TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost] TASK [Install package] ****************************************************************************************************************************************** changed: [localhost] TASK [debug] **************************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost] => { "test": { "ansible_job_id": "985993379134.5246", "changed": true, "failed": false, "finished": 1, "msg": "", "rc": 0, "results": [ "Loaded plugins: fastestmirror\nLoading mirror speeds from cached hostfile\n * base: repo1.ash.innoscale.net\n * extras: centos2.zswap.net\n * updates: centos.mirror.constant.com\nResolving Dependencies\n--> Running transaction check\n---> Package nmap.x86_64 2:6.40-13.el7 will be installed\n--> Finished Dependency Resolution\n\nDependencies Resolved\n\n================================================================================\n Package Arch Version Repository Size\n================================================================================\nInstalling:\n nmap x86_64 2:6.40-13.el7 base 3.9 M\n\nTransaction Summary\n================================================================================\nInstall 1 Package\n\nTotal download size: 3.9 M\nInstalled size: 16 M\nDownloading packages:\nRunning transaction check\nRunning transaction test\nTransaction test succeeded\nRunning transaction\n Installing : 2:nmap-6.40-13.el7.x86_64 1/1 \n Verifying : 2:nmap-6.40-13.el7.x86_64 1/1 \n\nInstalled:\n nmap.x86_64 2:6.40-13.el7 \n\nComplete!\n" ] } } TASK [debug] **************************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost] => { "test.stdout": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!" } TASK [debug] **************************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost] => { "msg": "I was expecting to see the 'yum' output above" } PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** localhost : ok=5 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 

You don't get stdout in the result set for yum