# How to email all facts **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 26, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425 "2013-02-26T14:56:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Devin\_Bayer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@Devin\_Bayer1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Devin_Bayer1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 9:47am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/21 "2013-02-27T09:47:54Z")
Thanks Daniel! This was my problem too! For my "email facts" I still have one problem. How do I handle double quotes in the output? If my template is: ( "words ) the mail module complains rightfully: ValueError: No closing quotation. So can I escape the template output in my playbook? Also, what do you think about allowing inline templates? Like:   tasks:     - shell: echo "$item"       with\_template: \>         {{ hostvars|replace('"', '\"') }} or maybe making all values jinja templates:       mail: \>         body="{% filter replace('"', '\"') %}{% include welcome.j2 %}{% endfilter %}"         subject=welcome I could make a patch if there is support. Cheers, Devin ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/22 "2013-02-27T09:48:24Z")
> This bug is now fixed on devel. Thank you, Daniel; it is indeed.         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/23 "2013-02-27T13:51:22Z")
> Also, what do you think about allowing inline templates? Like: > >   tasks: >     - shell: echo "$item" >       with\_template: \> >         {{ hostvars|replace('"', '\"') }} One goal of Ansible is to be readable like pseudocode, so I'd rather not have this, it's a slippery slope. That all being said, I also disagree that it complains rightfully, I believe it complains non-rightfully, and that the $TEMPLATE macro needs to escape quotes when it needs to. I'll need a minimal example to to reproduce it. > or maybe making all values jinja templates: > >       mail: \> >         body="{% filter replace('"', '\"') %}{% include welcome.j2 %}{% endfilter %}" >         subject=welcome > > I could make a patch if there is support. I'd rather not -- using Jinja2 inside of the playbook is not a good idea, because it quickly turns our templating to Perlishness IMHO. I'd rather fix the root cause. ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/24 "2013-02-27T14:03:37Z")
> I'll need a minimal example to to reproduce it. A template containing         "hello suffices. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/25 "2013-02-27T14:13:46Z")
Michael DeHaan wrote: > > Also, what do you think about allowing inline templates? Like: > > > >   tasks: > >     - shell: echo "$item" > >       with\_template: \> > >         {{ hostvars|replace('"', '\"') }} > > One goal of Ansible is to be readable like pseudocode, so I'd rather > not have this, it's a slippery slope. > > That all being said, I also disagree that it complains rightfully, I > believe it complains non-rightfully, and that the $TEMPLATE macro > needs to escape quotes when it needs to. It doesn't know whether you are using ' or ", or if you even want quotes. Maybe you are using $TEMPLATE to invoke some Jinja2 to generate your entire action line, in which case messing with the quotes would break it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/26 "2013-02-27T14:17:30Z")
Devin Bayer wrote: > > Jan-Piet Mens wrote: > > > > > > There seems to be a problem with indexing `hostvars' in $TEMPLATE(). > > > > > > > > [1] [https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984](https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984) > > > > > > For the record: Daniel says I'm missing a "name:" on the action. Adding > > > that indeed fixes the problem, but I think that's a bug, as 'name:' is > > > supposed to be optional. (Gist updated with a comment.) > > > > This bug is now fixed on devel. > > Thanks Daniel! This was my problem too! > > For my "email facts" I still have one problem. How do I handle double > quotes in the output? Best way to get out of quote-hell is to use the new args: way of specifying arguments. This means you can include anything you want, and ansible will take care of quoting for you. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/27 "2013-02-27T14:39:54Z")
> > I'll need a minimal example to to reproduce it. > > A template containing > >         "hello > > suffices. If the $TEMPLATE macro automatically included output in " " and escaped internal quotes that would fix it for most people. I can't think of a use where someone would use $TEMPLATE inside a template. We could essentially make that a "don't do that" scenario. ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/28 "2013-02-27T15:09:01Z")
> Best way to get out of quote-hell is to use the new args: way of specifying > arguments. This means you can include anything you want, and ansible will > take care of quoting for you. You mean like this? [https://p.6core.net/p/V3bhkFxeAhsoceyP4ZGPCvFk](https://p.6core.net/p/V3bhkFxeAhsoceyP4ZGPCvFk) Not really ... (Setting args: body: "HELLO" works. Replacing $TEMPLATE() by $FILE() produces same trace. )         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/29 "2013-02-27T15:24:57Z")
Jan-Piet Mens wrote: > > Best way to get out of quote-hell is to use the new args: way of > > specifying > > arguments. This means you can include anything you want, and ansible > > will > > take care of quoting for you. > > You mean like this? [https://p.6core.net/p/V3bhkFxeAhsoceyP4ZGPCvFk](https://p.6core.net/p/V3bhkFxeAhsoceyP4ZGPCvFk) > > Not really ... > > (Setting args: body: "HELLO" works. > Replacing $TEMPLATE() by $FILE() produces same trace. > ) What is in your file? Non-ASCII characters? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/30 "2013-02-27T16:42:17Z")
So there's this story about a guy who goes to a doctor and says "my arm hurts when I do this", and the doctor says "don't do that then". Easiest way to see hostvars is to just write it to the local server with "template" {{ hostvars | to\_json }} and use the fetch module to pull it back if you want. ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/31 "2013-02-27T18:13:46Z")
> What is in your file? Non-ASCII characters? Plain ASCII.         [https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984/raw/b53e7fe94cec694030f22e73b134756581e0b978/mail3.j2](https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984/raw/b53e7fe94cec694030f22e73b134756581e0b978/mail3.j2) ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/32 "2013-02-27T18:18:12Z")
> and the doctor says "don't do that then". So you're saying if stuff which is documented breaks, we shouldn't use it? Am I getting this right? > Easiest way to see hostvars is to just write it to the local server > with "template" > > {{ hostvars | to\_json }} > > and use the fetch module to pull it back if you want. Well, that's one way, yes. We could also shell out and lpr it. (Pardon the sarcasm.) I chipped in because I thought OP's request wasn't a bad idea. I'll stand down if this is OT. My intention, in posting bug reports, is to improve on the quality of stuff.         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/33 "2013-02-27T18:50:35Z")
Jan-Piet Mens wrote: > > What is in your file? Non-ASCII characters? > > Plain ASCII. > >         [https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984/raw/b53e7fe94cec694030f22e73b134756581e0b978/mail3.j2](https://gist.github.com/jpmens/5045984/raw/b53e7fe94cec694030f22e73b134756581e0b978/mail3.j2) Thanks. This should work on devel now, there were some issues with how the args: were getting transferred that should be fixed now. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/34 "2013-02-27T19:09:46Z")
> This should work on devel now, there were some issues with how the > args: were getting transferred that should be fixed now. Works, thanks.         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Devin\_Bayer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@Devin\_Bayer1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Devin_Bayer1)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/35 "2013-02-28T10:05:26Z")
Thanks for all the help and bug-fixes guys. I now have a nice welcome message sent when somebody gets a new box: [https://gist.github.com/akvadrako/5055631](https://gist.github.com/akvadrako/5055631) Cheers, Devin ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/36 "2013-02-28T12:55:39Z")
Cool! Send me a patch for "nice\_yaml" to the "filter plugin" module in core, and I'll gladly include it. (Probably to\_nice\_yaml to be consistent) ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Wieers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Dag\_Wieers](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dag_Wieers)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425/37 "2013-03-13T16:39:23Z")
Nice, that's what I wrote the mail module initially for. The other (slightly evil) use-case was to nag other teams if our process depended on their (non-automated) intervention(s). Our playbook would bail-out while sending the email (again) until the matter was cleared and we could continue the process. (Read: complex processes in a large enterprise environment) [Previous page](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-email-all-facts/12425.md?page=1)