# How can I pass variables to command module's argv parameter in Ansible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 9, 2023, 12:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638 "2023-02-09T12:01:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tariver\_16](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@tariver\_16](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tariver_16)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 12:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638/1 "2023-02-09T12:01:27Z")
Greeting! Asked it on [stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75388765/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible), but didn’t get an answer, so I’m trying my luck here. A bit condensed version: I’m trying to write a role that creates a Redis cluster. At some point I must execute redis-cli binary with some parameters: /usr/bin/redis-cli --user admin --pass mypass --cluster create 10.226.2.194:6379 10.226.2.196:6379 10.226.2.195:6379 --cluster-replicas 1 --cluster-yes I pass all the required parameters as extra variables when I call the playbook with a shell script: #!/bin/sh ansible-playbook /etc/ansible/playbook-redis.yml -vv –extra-vars=‘redis\_admin\_user=admin redis\_admin\_password=mypass’ –extra-vars=‘redis\_cluster\_members=“10.226.2.194:6379 10.226.2.196:6379 10.226.2.195:6379” redis\_cluster\_replicas=1’ At first I tried the following: - name: Create Redis cluster ansible.builtin.command: argv: - /usr/bin/redis-cli - “–user {{ redis\_admin\_user }}” - “–pass {{ redis\_admin\_password }}” - “–cluster create {{ redis\_cluster\_members }}” - “–cluster-replicas {{ redis\_cluster\_replicas }}” - –cluster-yes And got error “Unrecognized option or bad number of args for: ‘–user admin’” which is a redis-cli error. After some experimenting I found out that if I pass the variables in a separate line some of them work. So this task works and returns info about server. - name: Get server info ansible.builtin.command: argv: - /usr/bin/redis-cli - –user - “{{ redis\_admin\_user }}” - –pass - “{{ redis\_admin\_password }}” - info So the username and password are recognized be redis-cli, but, unfortunately not the “redis\_cluster\_members”. The following task: - name: Create Redis cluster ansible.builtin.command: argv: - /usr/bin/redis-cli - –user - “{{ redis\_admin\_user }}” - –pass - “{{ redis\_admin\_password }}” - –cluster create - “{{ redis\_cluster\_members }}” - –cluster-replicas - “{{ redis\_cluster\_replicas }}” - –cluster-yes returns error “Unrecognized option or bad number of args for: ‘–cluster create’” I wonder if I’m missing some syntax error or misread the documentation and trying to use argv not the way it’s supposed to be used? ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Rowe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/walter_rowe/32/4506_2.png) [@Walter\_Rowe](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Walter_Rowe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638/2 "2023-02-09T13:00:19Z")
> #!/bin/sh ansible-playbook /etc/ansible/playbook-redis.yml -vv > –extra-vars\*\*=**‘redis\_admin\_user=admin redis\_admin\_password=mypass’ > –extra-vars**=\*\*‘redis\_cluster\_members=“10.226.2.194:6379 10.226.2.196:6379 10.226.2.195:6379” redis\_cluster\_replicas=1’ Leave off the = and use a space for --extra\_vars. -e EXTRA\_VARS, --extra-vars EXTRA\_VARS set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @ Walter ---
**Author:** ![tariver\_16](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@tariver\_16](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tariver_16)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638/3 "2023-02-09T13:57:02Z")
Thank you for your reply Changed the shell script to the following: #!/bin/sh ansible-playbook /etc/ansible/playbook-redis.yml -vv –extra-vars “redis\_admin\_user=admin redis\_admin\_password=mypass” –extra-vars “redis\_cluster\_members=‘10.226.2.194:6379 10.226.2.196:6379 10.226.2.195:6379’” –extra-vars “redis\_cluster\_replicas=1” Got the same error “Unrecognized option or bad number of args for: ‘–cluster create’” четверг, 9 февраля 2023 г. в 16:00:41 UTC+3, [walte...@nist.gov](mailto:walte...@nist.gov): ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Rowe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/walter_rowe/32/4506_2.png) [@Walter\_Rowe](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Walter_Rowe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638/4 "2023-02-09T14:06:00Z")
I had a problem similar to this once. Your redis command might be getting your cluster members as a single string vs separate ip:port args. Walter ---
**Author:** ![tariver\_16](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@tariver\_16](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tariver_16)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-can-i-pass-variables-to-command-modules-argv-parameter-in-ansible/37638/5 "2023-03-02T16:22:45Z")
I’ve opened an issue at Ansible GitHub and got explained how argv parameter works. [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/79967](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/79967) Summary: This happens because of how module and redis-cli utility work with arguments. When passing arguments this modules delimits them with single quotation marks, so - name: Create Redis cluster ansible.builtin.command: argv: - /usr/bin/redis-cli - “–user {{ redis\_admin\_user }}” - “–pass {{ redis\_admin\_password }}” - “–cluster create {{ redis\_cluster\_members }}” - “–cluster-replicas {{ redis\_cluster\_replicas }}” - –cluster-yes is passed as (mind the quotation marks) /usr/bin/redis-cli ‘–user admin’ ‘–pass mypass’ ‘–cluster create 10.226.2.194:6379 10.226.2.196:6379 10.226.2.195:6379’ ‘–cluster-replicas 1’ ‘–cluster-yes’ If you enter this command directly into command line you’ll get the same error - “Unrecognized option or bad number of args for: ‘–user admin’”. This is because, quoting redis-cli documentation ([https://redis.io/docs/ui/cli/#string-quoting-and-escaping](https://redis.io/docs/ui/cli/#string-quoting-and-escaping)), > When redis-cli parses a command, whitespace characters automatically delimit the arguments. So the correct way to pass this command will be (mind the quotation marks) /usr/bin/redis-cli ‘–user’ ‘admin’ ‘–pass’ ‘mypass’ ‘–cluster’ 'create ’ ‘10.226.2.194:6379’ ‘10.226.2.196:6379’ ‘10.226.2.195:6379’ ‘–cluster-replicas’ ‘1’ ‘–cluster-yes’ So I did a workaround constructing the command as a variable in vars/main.yml and then passing it to the module (I’m going to post it on stackoverflow). четверг, 9 февраля 2023 г. в 17:06:24 UTC+3, Rowe, Walter P. (Fed):