Trying to replace single quote with regex_replace

[Dimitri Yioulos]

Hello, all.

I'm working with VMware modules in removing snapshots across all vCenter folders. In order for this to work, I first have to get the folders in which the virtual machines live. Here's the playbook:

---

- hosts: all
  become: false
  gather_facts: false

  vars_prompt:

    - name: "vcenter_username"
      prompt: "Enter your Vcenter username"
      private: no
    - name: "vcenter_password"
      prompt: "Enter your VMware password"
      private: yes

  vars:
    vcenter_hostname: vcenter1.mycompany.com
    vcenter_datacenter: First Datacenter

  tasks:

    - name: Find virtual machine's folder name
      vmware_guest_find:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
        validate_certs: False
      delegate_to: localhost
      ignore_errors: true
      register: vm_facts
      tags:

        - folder

    - name: Show folders
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ vm_facts.folders }}"
      tags:
        - folder

    - name: Remove all snapshots of a VM
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_snapshot:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
        datacenter: "{{ vcenter_datacenter }}"
        folder: "{{ vm_facts.folders | regex_replace('(\\[)|(\\])',  '') }}"
        name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
        state: remove_all
        validate_certs: False
      delegate_to: localhost

Previous to my having employed regex_replace, this is the output I'd get, e.g., for a vm's folder:

"['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"

The problem with that is [' and ']. They can't be part pf the folder name. After employing regex-replace, the output is:

" '/Bedford Datacenter/vm/Bedford-Prod-SRM' "

Try as I may, I've not been able to find a way to also remove the single quotes (the double quotes can remain). I've tried appending to the regex_replace, but every piece of code i've used has failed.

regex_replace('(\\[)|(\\])'|(addlcodehere),  '') }}

Your kinf assistance requested.

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

Have you tried:

regex_replace('(\\[)|(\\])|(\\')', '')

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services Division
Mobile: 202.355.4123

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[Dimitri Yioulos]

Hi, Walter.

Yes, and it fails:

fatal: [api-dev-01 -> localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "template error while templating string: expected token 'end of print statement', got 'string'. String: {{ vm_facts.folders | regex_replace('(\\\\[)|(\\\\])|(\\\\')',  '') }}. expected token 'end of print statement', got 'string'"
}

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

This works.

regex_replace(\"([\\[\\]'])\",'')

Escaping the double quotes that define the search regex gets around needing to escape the single quote. Also note that I collapsed your search into a single character set.

---

- name: test

  hosts: localhost

  become: false

  gather_facts: false

  vars:

    mystr: "['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"

  tasks:

    - debug: msg="{{ mystr | regex_replace(\"([\\[\\]'])\",'') }}"

% ansible-playbook -i localhost, foo.yml

PLAY [test] ************************************************************************************************************

TASK [debug] ***********************************************************************************************************

ok: [localhost] => {

    "msg": "/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM"

}

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************

localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   

The solution was found on this stack overflow page.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52495838/ansible-remove-the-single-quote-character-from-a-string

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services Division
Mobile: 202.355.4123

[Dimitri Yioulos]

Walter, that worked, and thanks so much! I both appreciate the regex solution, and it simplification. I also probably be able to reuse this, with some modifications, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. Double win. Thanks again!

[Dimitri Yioulos]

Walter, to further my knowledge, would you mind explaining further what this regex  \"([\\[\\]'])\",'  does? Is the regex specifi to regex_replace?

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

In plain terms it is really this:

[[]']

The outside square brackets define a character set. The characters in between mean "any of these".

Since square brackets define a character set we have to escape the inside square brackets to be see as characters in the set.

[\[\]']

Since this is ansible we have to escape the backslashes.

[\\[\\]']

You could place any characters in that set. The regex matches *any* of them any number of times.

For example I could use [walter] and it would look for any of those characters.

You also can use ranges like [a-dv-z]. This all follows Python regex rules.

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services Division
Mobile: 202.355.4123

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/d6b6bcd4-71fd-4193-acb7-fdd740ca7202n%40googlegroups.com.

[Vladimir Botka]

> "['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"
> The problem is [' and ']. They can't be part pf the folder name.

FWIW, convert the string to a list

s: "['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"
l: "{{ s|from_yaml }}"

gives

l.0: /First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM

--
Vladimir Botka

[Rowe, Walter P. (Fed)]

Even better! Brilliant!

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, Division Chief
Infrastructure Services Division
Mobile: 202.355.4123

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[Dimitri Yioulos]

Thanks, Vladimir. Forgive my stupidity but, for my edification, how is that actually written in the playbook?

[Vladimir Botka]

> > On Jan 10, 2024, at 12:16 PM, Vladimir Botka <vbo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > FWIW, convert the string to a list
> >
> > s: "['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"
> > l: "{{ s|from_yaml }}"

On Fri, 12 Jan 2024 09:05:16 -0800 (PST)
Dimitri Yioulos <dyio...@gmail.com> wrote:
> how is that actually written in the playbook?

For example,

shell> cat pb1.yml
- hosts: all
vars:

s: "['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']"
l: "{{ s|from_yaml }}"

tasks:
- debug:
var: l|type_debug
- debug:
var: l.0

gives (abridged)

l|type_debug: list
l.0: /First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM

But, the code in your first email shows you get *vm_facts* as
registered output of *community.vmware.vmware_guest_find*. Take a
look at the Return Values of this module
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/vmware/vmware_guest_find_module.html#return-values

The documentation says *folders* is "list/elements=string". In this
case, no conversion is needed to get the element of the list. For
example,

shell> cat pb2.yml
- hosts: all
vars:
vm_facts:
folders: ['/First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM']
tasks:
- debug:
var: vm_facts.folders|type_debug
- debug:
var: vm_facts.folders.0

gives (abridged)

vm_facts.folders|type_debug: list
vm_facts.folders.0: /First Datacenter/vm/Prod-SRM

FWIW, try community.general.yaml callback. YAML is much easier to
read compared to JSON. See
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/general/yaml_callback.html

--
Vladimir Botka