sivel
March 6, 2025, 2:59pm
2
This isn’t a bug, it’s just a side effect of how templating works, and the implementation historically necessary to get jinja2 to be able to provide python data types, instead of just strings. See:
opened 07:49PM - 08 Jan 18 UTC
closed 08:46PM - 08 Jan 18 UTC
python3
module
support:core
affects_2.5
bug
##### ISSUE TYPE
- Bug Report
##### COMPONENT NAME
copy_module
##### AN… SIBLE VERSION
```
ansible 2.5.0 (devel 34206a0402) last updated 2018/01/08 18:52:56 (GMT +000)
config file = None
configured module search path = ['/home/ubuntu/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /home/ubuntu/ansible/lib/ansible
executable location = /home/ubuntu/ansible/bin/ansible
python version = 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]
```
also seen on:
```
ansible 2.4.2.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = ['/home/brian/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /home/brian/.virtualenvs/mypy/lib/python3.5/site-packages/ansible
executable location = /home/brian/.virtualenvs/mypy/bin/ansible
python version = 3.5.2 (default, Nov 17 2016, 17:05:23) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]
```
##### CONFIGURATION
```
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ ansible-config dump --only-changed
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
```
(no output -- no changes to ansible.cfg, this is a clean ubuntu 16.04 VM with python, pip, virtualenv, a clone of the ansible repo, and `pip -r requirements.txt`)
##### OS / ENVIRONMENT
ubuntu 16.04, managing itself
##### SUMMARY
When running under python 3, using copy.content with literal json and a variable in the input, the output varies from run to run (the dict keys are being reordered arbitrarily).
##### STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Run the playbook below with:
```
ansible-playbook -i localhost, playbook.yaml
```
```yaml
---
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: false
vars:
my_var: a_value
tasks:
- copy:
dest: ./output.txt
content: |
{
"key1": "{{ my_var }}",
"key2": "something else",
"key3": "something different",
"key4": "completely different",
"key5": "1.2.3"
}
```
Note in the example playbook:
1. This only seems to happen when using a variable (static content didn't show this behavior).
2. This only seems to happen when the input is json (yaml didn't show this behavior).
##### EXPECTED RESULTS
1. The provided input should be output in the same format (i.e. without having whitespace rearranged).
2. The provided input should not be reordered (i.e. dict keys should not "move around").
3. (As a corollary to 2) The playbook should yield changed=0 on the second run -- the output file should not be modified.
##### ACTUAL RESULTS
See example run below.
Note that:
1. The input has been reformatted onto a single line.
2. The keys are reordered from the input.
3. The file changes on every run.
```
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ ansible-playbook -i localhost, playbook.yaml
PLAY [localhost] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [copy] ************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ cat output.txt
{"key1": "a_value", "key2": "something else", "key5": "1.2.3", "key3": "something different", "key4": "completely different"}(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ ansible-playbook -i localhost, playbook.yaml
PLAY [localhost] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [copy] ************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ cat output.txt
{"key5": "1.2.3", "key3": "something different", "key4": "completely different", "key1": "a_value", "key2": "something else"}(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ ansible-playbook -i localhost, playbook.yaml
PLAY [localhost] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [copy] ************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$ cat output.txt
{"key1": "a_value", "key5": "1.2.3", "key4": "completely different", "key3": "something different", "key2": "something else"}(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
(ansible-test) ubuntu@ubuntu-xenial:~/ansible$
```
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