# How to preserve the formatting of DB command execution output in Ansible

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-preserve-the-formatting-of-db-command-execution-output-in-ansible/38629>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [December 16, 2023, 4:24am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-preserve-the-formatting-of-db-command-execution-output-in-ansible/38629 "2023-12-16T04:24:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Know\_Your\_Tech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@Know\_Your\_Tech](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Know_Your_Tech)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:24am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-preserve-the-formatting-of-db-command-execution-output-in-ansible/38629/1 "2023-12-16T04:24:01Z")

</div>

Below is my manual command-line DB command execution output:

Note: I changed the connection string on purpose… Let me know if you need the correct connection string to check and test anything real time?

# mongo --quiet --eval ‘db=db.getSiblingDB(“efendibey”); printjson(db.stats())’ mongodb://42y2jn2Su31W9sS7hn:7x3uU0d9SrewLi0i3@45.76.162.227:60076/?authSource=efendibey

{  
“db” : “efendibey”,  
“collections” : 15,  
“views” : 0,  
“objects” : 389,  
“avgObjSize” : 463.32647814910024,  
“dataSize” : 180234,  
“storageSize” : 479232,  
“indexes” : 15,  
“indexSize” : 405504,  
“totalSize” : 884736,  
“scaleFactor” : 1,  
“fsUsedSize” : 39113961472,  
“fsTotalSize” : 42256773120,  
“ok”: 1  
}

I want this output as is to be sent back to the executor using ansible. Thus, above is the expected output I desire.

Below is my ansible playbook for the above command execution and print:

- name: Execute DB command  
hosts: localhost  
gather\_facts: false

tasks:

- name: Execute DB command  
raw: “{{ item }}”  
register: dboutput  
loop:

- “mongo --quiet --eval ‘db=db.getSiblingDB("efendibey"); printjson(db.stats())’ mongodb://42y2jn2Su31W9sS7hn:7x3uU0d9SrewLi0i3@45.76.162.227:60076/?authSource=efendibey”

- name: DEBUG DB output  
debug:  
msg: “here: {{ item.stdout }}”  
loop: “{{ dboutput.results }}”

However, the formatting it lost as visible from the output below:

TASK [Execute DB command] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
changed: [localhost] =\> (item=mongo --quiet --eval ‘db=db.getSiblingDB(“efendibey”); printjson(db.stats())’ mongodb://42y2jn2Su31W9sS7hn:7x3uU0d9SrewLi0i3@45.76.162.227:60076/?authSource=efendibey)

TASK [DEBUG DB output] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
ok: [localhost] =\> (item={‘rc’: 0, ‘stdout’: ‘{\n\t"db" : “efendibey”,\n\t"collections" : 15,\n\t"views" : 0,\n\t"objects" : 389,\n\t"avgObjSize" : 463.32647814910024,\n\t"dataSize" : 180234,\n\t"storageSize" : 479232,\n\t"indexes" : 15,\n\t"indexSize" : 405504,\n\t"totalSize" : 884736,\n\t"scaleFactor" : 1,\n\t"fsUsedSize" : 39113928704,\n\t"fsTotalSize" : 42256773120,\n\t"ok" : 1\n}\n’, ‘stdout\_lines’: [‘{’, ‘\t"db" : “efendibey”,’, ‘\t"collections" : 15,’, ‘\t"views" : 0,’, ‘\t"objects" : 389,’, ‘\t"avgObjSize" : 463.32647814910024,’, ‘\t"dataSize" : 180234,’, ‘\t"storageSize" : 479232,’, ‘\t"indexes" : 15,’, ‘\t"indexSize" : 405504,’, ‘\t"totalSize" : 884736,’, ‘\t"scaleFactor" : 1,’, ‘\t"fsUsedSize" : 39113928704,’, ‘\t"fsTotalSize" : 42256773120,’, ‘\t"ok" : 1’, ‘}’], ‘stderr’: ‘’, ‘stderr\_lines’: , ‘changed’: True, ‘failed’: False, ‘item’: ‘mongo --quiet --eval 'db=db.getSiblingDB(“efendibey”); printjson(db.stats())' mongodb://42y2jn2Su31W9sS7hn:7x3uU0d9SrewLi0i3@45.76.162.227:60076/?authSource=efendibey’, ‘ansible\_loop\_var’: ‘item’}) =\> {  
“msg”: “here: {\n\t"db" : "efendibey",\n\t"collections" : 15,\n\t"views" : 0,\n\t"objects" : 389,\n\t"avgObjSize" : 463.32647814910024,\n\t"dataSize" : 180234,\n\t"storageSize" : 479232,\n\t"indexes" : 15,\n\t"indexSize" : 405504,\n\t"totalSize" : 884736,\n\t"scaleFactor" : 1,\n\t"fsUsedSize" : 39113928704,\n\t"fsTotalSize" : 42256773120,\n\t"ok" : 1\n}\n”  
}

I wish to eventually use `blockinfile` to dump and then read back the output of DB execution to a flat file.

I tried `regex_replace` filter but the new lines and other formatting remain disturbed and i cannot get the desired output.

- name: Replace escaped characters with actual newline and tab  
set\_fact:  
formatted\_data: “{{ item.stdout | regex\_replace(‘\\n’, ‘\n’) | regex\_replace(‘\\t’, ‘\t’) }}”  
loop: “{{ dboutput.results }}”

Note: In case it is difficult to get the output as is… I would like the output to be decently formatted on newlines.

Can you please suggest how can I?