Syntax error after ansible update (latest)

[Nico]

Hi,

My playbook is not working anymore after updating ansible to latest version. 

For example: 

- Vault file containing variable with value

vault_win_password: foo20"

- Variable with value 

location: C:\Program files (x86)\bar

Task:

- name: Test login

  script: "{{ role_path }}/files/portal.ps1 {{ dbuser }} {{ vault_win_password }}"

Error:

The full traceback is:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible-2.5.1-py2.7.egg/ansible/executor/task_executor.py", line 138, in run

    res = self._execute()

  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible-2.5.1-py2.7.egg/ansible/executor/task_executor.py", line 558, in _execute

    result = self._handler.run(task_vars=variables)

  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible-2.5.1-py2.7.egg/ansible/plugins/action/script.py", line 79, in run

    parts = [to_text(s, errors='surrogate_or_strict') for s in shlex.split(raw_params.strip())]

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/shlex.py", line 279, in split

    return list(lex)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/shlex.py", line 269, in next

    token = self.get_token()

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/shlex.py", line 96, in get_token

    raw = self.read_token()

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/shlex.py", line 172, in read_token

    raise ValueError, "No closing quotation"

ValueError: No closing quotation

fatal: [sj-aio01]: FAILED! => {

    "msg": "Unexpected failure during module execution.",

    "stdout": ""

}

- name: Test location

  script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 {{ location}}"

fatal: [sj-can02]: FAILED! => {

    "changed": true,

    "msg": "non-zero return code",

    "rc": 1,

    "stderr": "x86 : The term 'x86' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, \r\nscript file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path \r\nwas included, verify that the path is correct and try again.\r\nAt line:1 char:122\r\n+ ... 42148.17-152711404220483\\cannister.ps1' C:\\Program Files (x86)\\IBM\\IB ...\r\n+                                                               ~~~\r\n    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (x86:String) [], CommandNotFound \r\n   Exception\r\n    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException\r\n \r\n\r\n",

    "stdout": "",

    "stdout_lines": []

}

Before updating this worked.

- name: Test location

  script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 \'{{ location}}\'"

Now says:

ERROR! Syntax Error while loading YAML.

  found unknown escape character "'"

How am I supposed to pass along parameters when ansible does not understand the values anymore? 

[Nico]

Also tried using single quotes but get this error:

fatal: [sj-aio01]: FAILED! => {"msg": "template error while templating string: unexpected char u'\"' at 10. String: {{foo20\"}}"}

Super annoying. 

[Jordan Borean]

Your issue is that one of your arguments contains a " and when shlex tries to split the arguments as a list it fails to find the end ". E.g the value of script you set is

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/portal.ps1 {{ dbuser }} {{ vault_win_password }}"

# when taking away Jinja2 this becomes

script: /some/path/files/portal.ps1 user foo20"


When trying to turn the string to a list of arguments ([portal.ps1", "user", "foo20\""]), it fails to find the end quote for the password quote. What you need to do is use the quote filter to automatically quote each argument, e.g.

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/portal.ps1 {{ dbuser|quote }} {{ vault_win_password|quote }}"

# if you wanted to do it manually without the quote filter (please don't)

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/portal.ps1 '{{ dbuser }}' '{{ vault_win_password }}'"

# when taking away Jinja2 this become

script: /some/path/files/portal.ps1 "user" "foo20\""

This means each argument is quoted so shlex can split them into a list without any issues.

You second issue also comes down to quotes, when interpreting this

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 {{ location }}"

# this is seen by Ansible as

script: /some/path/files/portal.ps1 C:\Program Files (x86)\bar

When running in Windows, it sees this as 3 different arguments; ["C:\Program", "Files", "(x86)\bar"] as it is not quoted. PowerShell makes this a bit more complex, the 3rd argument (x86)\bar, PowerShell see the brackets and things the value inside is a command and so tries to run it which in turn leads to the error x86 is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function... The fix for this is the same as your previous issue, use the quote filter to quote the values

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 {{ location }}"

# without using the quote filter this is how it can be done (once again please don't this is just to illustrate how it could be done)

script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 \"{{ location }}\""
# or
script: "{{ role_path }}/files/file.ps1 '{{ location }}'"

# this is seen by Ansible as

script: /some/path/files/portal.ps1 "C:\Program Files (x86)\bar"

Now because the path is quoted, it is seen as 1 argument instead of 3.

Thanks

Jordan

[Nico]

Thank you very much Jordan. That helped! 

Much appreciated!!!