error when running a windows command using 'raw'

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1

Hi all,

Tearing my hair out trying to resolve this. I am getting the following:-

“reason”: “failed at splitting arguments, either an unbalanced jinja2 block or quotes: C:\‘Program Files’\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm -a\n{{ temp_area }}\{{ db2_lic_file }}\n\nThe error appears to have been in ‘/var/lib/awx/projects/_49__ansible_chrisj_testing/playbooks/MQ_Test/Machine_Setup/roles/DB2_Install/tasks/Win32NT_DB2_Install.yml’: line 51, 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: Installing the license\n ^ here\n”

This is the errant piece of yaml:-

  • name: Installing the license
    raw: |
    C:'Program Files’\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm -a
    {{ temp_area }}{{ db2_lic_file }}

Can anyone help?

Many Thanks

Chris.

2

My first guess is that the backslash "" characters are ‘escaping’ the following character. Try doubling each of them “\”

3

Probably not that, it seems to have understood the backslash. It is complaining about the “name:” line, so either there is an invisible character (happens when I cut/paste from a doc or web page), or likely the problem is before that line, so it is not expecting the ‘name:’ line. Can you show us the preceding few lines?

4

Not sure why it is complaining here, maybe an invisble control character. Anyway you are best off doing the following;

`

  • name: Installing the license
    raw: ‘“C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm” -a “{{ temp_area }}{{ db2_lic_file }}”’

`

Raw in Windows is not truly raw as it is run in a PowerShell shell so the standard quoting rules apply. Having C:'Progam Files’.. wouldn’t work as that isn’t valid PowerShell. The example above will quote that whole string as well as your -a arg in case it has a space in it. You can also consider using win_command for this if you want to talk advantage of things like become, environment, async and some of the other options it adds.

Thanks

Jordan

5

Actually if your example is literal and -a is on a newline then that’s probably your issue, it sounds like you wanted ‘>’ not ‘|’ to folder each newline in your string but I still recommend the way above I posted.

6

Thankls for the responses so far.

Getting a different error now after applying your suggestion Jordan (so positive)

“stderr_lines”: [
“At line:1 char:43”,
“+ "C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm" -a "C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppDa …”,
“+ ~~”,
“Unexpected token ‘-a’ in expression or statement.”,
“At line:1 char:46”,
“+ … \db2licm" -a "C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\db2_11_aese_u.lic"”,
“+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~”,
“Unexpected token ‘"C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\db2_11_aese_u.lic"’ in expression or statement.”,
“+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:slight_smile: , ParentContainsErrorRecordException”,
“+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken”
],
“_ansible_no_log”: false,
“stdout”: “”,
“changed”: true,
“stderr”: “At line:1 char:43\r\n+ "C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm" -a "C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppDa …\r\n+ ~~\r\nUnexpected token ‘-a’ in expression or statement.\r\nAt line:1 char:46\r\n+ … \db2licm" -a "C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\db2_11_aese_u.lic"\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\nUnexpected token ‘"C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\db2_11_aese_u.lic"’ in expression or statement.\r\n+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:slight_smile: , ParentContainsErrorRecordException\r\n+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken\r\n”,
“rc”: 1,
“msg”: “non-zero return code”,
“stdout_lines”:

7

Sorry, just to add to the previous post, the yaml is now as follows:-

  • name: Installing the license
    raw: ‘“C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN\db2licm” -a “{{ temp_area }}{{ db2_lic_file }}”’
8

That’s my bad, when you quote the string and want to execute it you need to add the call operator like:

- raw: ‘&” C:\Program Files\... “‘

The alternative is to use win_command with the setup you have right now.

9

Jordan,

Worked like a dream! I changed the module to win_command.

Many thanks for your help!

Regards

Chris