How can I set_fact based on a "registered" result?

[Dayton Jones]

ansible-playbook 2.3.0.0

python version = 2.7.12 

I'm trying to set some facts based on the user-data given for an EC2 instance:

- name: Initialization

  hosts: localhost

  connection: local

  tasks:

    - name: Get userdata
      uri:
        url: http://169.254.169.254/latest/user-data
        return_content: yes
      register: metadata
    - name: Set userdata fact
      set_fact:
        userdata: "{{ metadata.content | from_yaml }}"
    - debug:
        var: userdata

which returns:

TASK [debug] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "changed": false,
    "userdata": "nx-app=web nx-name=my.hostname.net nx-state=standby nx-system=prod nx-version=01"
}

But I'm having trouble pulling the userdata.<value> out:

    - name: Set facts needed from userdata
      set_fact:
        system: "{{ userdata.nx-system }}"
        version: "{{ userdata.nx-version }}"
        app: "{{ userdata.nx-app }}"
        state: "{{ userdata.nx-state }}"
        name: "{{ userdata.nx-name }}"

TASK [Set facts needed from userdata] *****************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "the field 'args' has an invalid value, which appears to include a variable that is undefined. The error was: 'unicode object' has no attribute 'nx'\n\nThe error appears to have been in 'data.yml': line 21, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n    - name: Set facts needed from userdata\n      ^ here\n"}

What am I missing?  I've tried several things but haven't hit on the solution so I'm open to any suggestions.

[Kai Stian Olstad]

This show that userdata is a string.

> But I'm having trouble pulling the userdata.<value> out:
>
> - name: Set facts needed from userdata
> set_fact:
> system: "{{ userdata.nx-system }}"
> version: "{{ userdata.nx-version }}"
> app: "{{ userdata.nx-app }}"
> state: "{{ userdata.nx-state }}"
> name: "{{ userdata.nx-name }}"

Since userdata is a string it's not possible to use array syntax.

> What am I missing? I've tried several things but haven't hit on the
> solution so I'm open to any suggestions.

What is the output of
- debug: var=metadata.content


--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Dayton Jones]

Yep, realized I was trying to parse it as JSON, or YAML very much incorrectly...

I have a solution now, though it's quite ugly and requires replacing a character and splitting on newlines....

    - name: Get userdata
      uri:
        url: http://169.254.169.254/latest/user-data
        return_content:

yes
      register: rawdata
    - name: Replace hyphen with undserscore since hyphens are not valid in python variables
      set_fact:
        metadata: "{{ rawdata | replace('-','_') }}"

    - name: Set userdata fact
      set_fact:

        userdata: "{{ metadata.content.split('\n') }}"
    - set_fact:
        "{{ item.split('=')[0] }}": "{{ item.split('=')[1] }}"
      with_items: "{{ userdata }}"