# Ansible expect module to prompt yes to a question (with spl characters)

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [September 29, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676 "2016-09-29T13:03:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Vikas\_Kumar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ecb155/32.png) [@Vikas\_Kumar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vikas_Kumar)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/1 "2016-09-29T13:03:43Z")

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Hello Everyone,

How can I use Ansible expect module to say yes for this prompt.

`Are you sure you want to continue (yes/no)?`

I tried to use this in vain. I think Ansible does not like characters like these - **( , / , ) , ?**

`

- expect:  
command: /my/command  
responses:  
Are you sure you want to continue (yes/no)?: yes  
`

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,  
Vikas

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**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/2 "2016-09-29T13:12:05Z")

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> Hello Everyone,
> 
> How can I use Ansible expect module to say yes for this prompt.
> 
> Are you sure you want to continue (yes/no)?
> 
> I tried to use this in vain. I think Ansible does not like characters like  
> these - \*( , / , ) , ?\*

Ansible and expect like them. But responses in expect is regexp and (, ) and ? and many more is special character,  
for a full list see [https://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html](https://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html)

> - expect:  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;command: /my/command  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;responses:  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Are you sure you want to continue (yes/no)?: yes

The special characters need to be escaped since you mean them literally.  
Try this  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Are you sure you want to continue \(yes/no\)\?: yes

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**Author:** ![Vikas\_Kumar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ecb155/32.png) [@Vikas\_Kumar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vikas_Kumar)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/3 "2016-09-29T13:25:46Z")

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Thanks Kai,

I did tried that earlier but encountered below error

`

An exception occurred during task execution. The full traceback is:  
Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/var/folders/qw/5nbqbmj97hsfz3z5lkwqk9lr0000gn/T/ansible\_eLtUlG/ansible\_module\_expect.py”, line 230, in   
main()  
File “/var/folders/qw/5nbqbmj97hsfz3z5lkwqk9lr0000gn/T/ansible\_eLtUlG/ansible\_module\_expect.py”, line 149, in main  
response = u’%s\n’ % value.rstrip(‘\n’).decode()  
AttributeError: ‘bool’ object has no attribute ‘rstrip’

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! =\> {“changed”: false, “failed”: true, “invocation”: {“module\_name”: “expect”}, “module\_stderr”: “Traceback (most recent call last):\n File "/var/folders/qw/5nbqbmj97hsfz3z5lkwqk9lr0000gn/T/ansible\_eLtUlG/ansible\_module\_expect.py", line 230, in \n main()\n File "/var/folders/qw/5nbqbmj97hsfz3z5lkwqk9lr0000gn/T/ansible\_eLtUlG/ansible\_module\_expect.py", line 149, in main\n response = u’%s\n’ % value.rstrip(‘\n’).decode()\nAttributeError: ‘bool’ object has no attribute ‘rstrip’\n”, “module\_stdout”: “”, “msg”: “MODULE FAILURE”, “parsed”: false}

`

- Vikas

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/4 "2016-09-29T14:02:27Z")

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You likely need to quote your answer, a bare `yes` in YAML is treated as a boolean, so you will need to quote it like: “yes”

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**Author:** ![Vikas\_Kumar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ecb155/32.png) [@Vikas\_Kumar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vikas_Kumar)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/5 "2016-09-30T00:42:25Z")

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Thanks Matt, that worked like a charm. I will keep this in my notes.

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**Author:** ![Murthy\_Vipparthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Murthy\_Vipparthy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Murthy_Vipparthy)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-expect-module-to-prompt-yes-to-a-question-with-spl-characters/22676/6 "2017-05-25T18:52:16Z")

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Hi there,

I am stuck @ similar place where I have to say enter after y when ‘Do you accept this license[y/n]’ . I have given following CODE and stuck, Any help appreciated.

-Murthy

**responses:**  
**‘Press [Enter] to continue:’: \n**  
**‘Do you accept this license?[y/n]’: y\n**