# Not replacing invalid character(s) in group name warning

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [December 20, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859 "2019-12-20T21:08:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a88e57/32.png) [@Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Xinhuan_Zheng)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859/1 "2019-12-20T21:08:01Z")

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Hello,

I’m using Ansible group\_by for networking specific information configuration. I need to use group\_by to collect data values from my group\_var/subnet\_ file. My group\_vars/subnet\_192.168.101.0 matches group\_by key. Here is my playbook:

- name: Group system by subnet  
group\_by:  
key: subnet\_{{ansible\_default\_ipv4.network}}

While I run my playbook, I got this error:

TASK [os-networking : Group system by subnet] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*  
task path: os-networking/tasks/main.yml:24  
Not replacing invalid character(s) “set([u’.'])” in group name (subnet\_192.168.101.0)  
[DEPRECATION WARNING]: The TRANSFORM\_INVALID\_GROUP\_CHARS settings is set to allow bad characters in group names by default, this  
will change, but still be user configurable on deprecation. This feature will be removed in version 2.10. Deprecation warnings can  
be disabled by setting deprecation\_warnings=False in ansible.cfg.  
[WARNING]: Invalid characters were found in group names but not replaced, use -vvvv to see details

ok: [myserver] =\> {  
“add\_group”: “subnet\_192.168.101.0”,  
“changed”: false,  
“parent\_groups”: [  
“all”  
]  
}

How should I fix this warning?

Thanks,

- Xinhuan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859/2 "2019-12-21T07:26:50Z")

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Don't use dot in group name or set TRANSFORM\_INVALID\_GROUP\_CHARS to a value of your choice.

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**Author:** ![Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a88e57/32.png) [@Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Xinhuan_Zheng)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859/3 "2019-12-26T14:22:50Z")

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Hello,

The group names by subnet will have dot. How do I change that to avoid dot characters?

- Xinhuan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859/4 "2019-12-26T15:57:18Z")

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If you read the documentation about TRANSFORM\_INVALID\_GROUP\_CHARS it says how you can do it with that.

Alternative is to use the regex\_replace filter or the  
replace metode {{ ansible\_default\_ipv4.network.replace('.', '\_') }}

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a88e57/32.png) [@Xinhuan\_Zheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Xinhuan_Zheng)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/not-replacing-invalid-character-s-in-group-name-warning/31859/5 "2019-12-27T14:36:26Z")

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Hello Mr. Kai,

I used {{ ansible\_default\_ipv4.network.replace(‘.’, ‘\_’) }} and created group\_vars/subnet\_xxx\_xxx\_xxx\_xxx. It worked perfectly. Thank you very much for help!

- Xinhuan