Passing a list to a callback - quoting issue

Archives Ansible Project
1

I have wasted way too much time on this seemingly simple solution, and was looking for some help.

We have a Tower job to deploy AWS cloudwatch and configure the logs to monitor that is kicked off via a callback. I use the following curl-

The callback is:

curl -f -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST -d '{"host_config_key": "xxxxx", "extra_vars": "{\"logs\":{{ eck_logs }},\"env_stage\":\"dev\"}"}' "https://tower.xxxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xx/callback/"

Which expands to

"curl -f -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST -d '{\"host_config_key\": \"xxx\", \"extra_vars\": \"{\\\"logs\\\":\\\"[{u'file': u'/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out', u'group_name': u'/on-premise/app1/container'}, {u'file': u'/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log', u'group_name': u'/on-premise/app1-webapp/applog'}]\\\",\\\"env_stage\\\":\\\"dev\\\"}\"}' \"https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xx/callback/\""..

The eck_logs variable looks like

`

“eck_logs”: [
{
“file”: “/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out”,
“group_name”: “/on-premise/app1/container”
},
{
“file”: “/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log”,
“group_name”: “/on-premise/app1/applog”
}
]

`

The issue i am running into is, i believe all about quoting… as it is currently, it will pass the variable to the Tower job, however it tacks on the “u” for unicode to the variable resulting in:

`

logs:

  • ugroup_name: u/on-premise/app1-webapp/container
    ufile: u/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out
  • ugroup_name: u/on-premise/app1/applog
    ufile: u/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log

`

when i quote the eck_logs variable in the curl command, i then instead get-

command:

`
curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{“host_config_key”: “xxx”, “extra_vars”: “{"logs":"{{ eck_logs }}","env_stage":"dev"}”}’ “https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xxx/callback/”

`

result

"curl -f -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST -d '{\"host_config_key\": \"xxx\", \"extra_vars\": \"{\\\"logs\\\":\\\"[{u'file': u'/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out', u'group_name': u'/on-premise/app1/container'}, {u'file': u'/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log’, u’group_name’: u’/on-premise/app1-webapp/applog’}]\",\"env_stage\":\"dev\"}"}’ "https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xxx/callback/\“”

Variable on Tower:

`

logs: >-
[{ufile: u/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out, ugroup_name:
u/on-premise/app1/container}, {ufile:
u/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log, ugroup_name:
u/on-premise/app1/applog}]

`

I have tried seemingly every filter, quoting, escaping I can and i can’t get the desired variable value when passing tower…

I am looking for the results in my first example for the logs variable (list), but without the leading “u” getting added to the values…

I realize this might be a mixture of a jinja/ansible question , but does anyone have any ideas on what i can try to fix this?

Thanks in advance!

2

You are just giving your curl command the python data structure of eck_logs and effectively you get a text representation of the data which includes the u prefix to indicate Unicode.

You likely want to do the following instead:

{{ eck_logs|to_json }}

To output the data in JSON format.

3

Thanks for the reply… i had tried using the to_json filter previously with no luck… ( i apologize for so much output below, but i think it is necessary to show / solve the issue)

When called with this:

`

curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{“host_config_key”: “xxx”, “extra_vars”: “{"logs":"{{ eck_logs | to_json }}","env_stage":"dev"}”}’ “https://tower.xxx:443/api/v1/job_templates/xxx/callback/”

`

Results in
`
curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{"host_config_key": "xxx", "extra_vars": "{\"logs\":\"[{"file": "/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out", "group_name": "/on-premise/app1/container"}, {"file": "/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1.log", "group_name": "/on-premise/app1-webapp/applog"}]\",\"env_stage\":\"dev\"}"}’ "https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xxx/callback/\"

`

which fails on the callback
`
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 400 BAD REQUEST

`

When I remove the quoting and escape around "{{ eck_logs | to_json }}" it also fails with the same curl error (it is running the following)

`
curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{"host_config_key": "xxx", "extra_vars": "{\"logs\":[{"file": "/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out", "group_name": "/on-premise/app1/container"}, {"file": "/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1.log", "group_name": "/on-premise/app1/applog"}],\"env_stage\":\"dev\"}"}’ "https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xx/callback/\"

`

It chokes as it adds the quoting around each of the fields… it needs to pass as the following for it to give me the desired results

`
\"[{‘file’: ‘/apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out’, ‘group_name’: ‘/on-premise/app1/container’}, {‘file’: ‘/apps/app1/shared/logs/app1-webapp.log’, ‘group_name’: ‘/on-premise/app1-webapp/applog’}]\"

`

4

Sorry for the additional reply, but i realized i had the incorrect desired output in my last one… When the curl command is the following, it works and gives me the correct extra-var on the tower side:

`

curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{“host_config_key”: “xxx”, “extra_vars”: “{"logs":[{file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out, group_name: /on-premise/app1/container}, {file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/app1.log, group_name: /on-premise/app1/webapp/applog}],"env_stage":"dev"}”}’ “https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xxx/callback/”

`

`

env_stage: dev
logs:

  • file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out
    group_name: /on-premise/app1/container
  • file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/app1.log
    group_name: /on-premise/app1/webapp/applog

`

for it to work, the {{ eck_logs }} variable to expand to not include the quoting (ie [{file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/catalina.out, group_name: /on-premise/app1/container}, {file: /apps/app1/shared/logs/app1.log, group_name: /on-premise/app1/webapp/applog}]) or the callback fails.

thx
-T

5

Thanks Matt for steering me towards a solution…I was able to get this working, utilizing the to_json and then stripping out all quotes… I used an intermediate fact to get to the final desired output as i didnt have luck when doing it inline, but there may be a way to skip that extra step…

`

  • block:
  • name: Create fact for log info to format for callback
    set_fact:
    logs: “{{ eck_logs | to_json | replace(‘"’, ‘’) }}”
  • name: Perform callback to tower to configure ECK logging
    command: >
    curl -f -k -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’ -XPOST -d ‘{“host_config_key”: “xxx”, “extra_vars”: “{"logs":{{ logs }},"env_stage":"dev"}”}’ “https://tower.xxx.net:443/api/v1/job_templates/xx/callback/”
    when: eck_logs is defined

`

thx for pointing me in the right direction, and sorry for all my replies!

-T