# Using "shell" with a switch **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [December 3, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180 "2018-12-03T16:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/1 "2018-12-03T16:44:08Z")
Hey, all. I need to run a script residing on the remote machine with a switch, as in “/scripts/myscript -f” (it must be executed by root). I’m using the shell module, but can find no way to add the switch without the play failing. Help would be appreciated. Dimitri ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/2 "2018-12-03T21:25:19Z")
Hey Dimitri, Why don't you send us your code and the output you are receiving? Piotr ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/3 "2018-12-03T22:22:03Z")
OK: > * * * > > - hosts: all > gather\_facts: false > become: yes > > # become\_user: root > > # become\_method: su > > tasks: > > - shell: “su - root” > args: > warn: false > - shell: ‘/scripts/dnscopy.pl -f’ > register: (result) > - debug: > var: (result) > verbosity: 2 \*become\_user and become\_method are commented out in favor of shell: “su - root” because using the former causes a timeout error, But that’s another issue. Output of play: TASK [command] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* fatal: [admin1]: FAILED! =\> {“changed”: true, “cmd”: “/scripts/dnscopy.pl -f”, “delta”: “0:00:01.425695”, “end”: “2018-12-03 17:13:56.113927”, “failed”: true, “rc”: 2, “start”: “2018-12-03 17:13:54.688232”, “stderr”: “Can’t exec "rndc": No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.\nrndc -s dns1 reload failed: No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”, “stderr\_lines”: [“Can’t exec "rndc": No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”, “rndc -s dns1 reload failed: No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”], “stdout”: “”, “stdout\_lines”: } without the -f switch, the play completes successfully. ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/4 "2018-12-03T23:37:12Z")
Dimitri,     - shell: "su - root"       args:         warn: false     - shell: '/scripts/dnscopy.pl -f'       register: (result) You are running 2 separate shells. First shell runs su - root then exits - this is not doining anything. Then secon task runs in a new shell, you are not leveraging the previous "su - root". You are using become: yes, and that should be sufficient to elevate task's rights, so the second task should work anyway. Try this: Remove - shell: "su - root" task replace it with: - shell: "whoami"    register: who - debug: var=who to check under which user is your script executing. If it's not 'root' then you messed up, if it is 'root' but your script still fails, you have a problem with your script. Piotr ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/5 "2018-12-04T13:34:43Z")
Thank you, Piotr. All good, now. You’re right, and this is a mistake I shouldn’t have made, given my long history with Ansible. But, hey, never too late to learn. Thanks, again. ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/6 "2018-12-04T14:38:03Z")
Piotr, Before I consider this solved, let me push the envelope a bit, and ask about the switch. If I run the play like this: Shell: /scripts/myscript it works. If I run it like this: Shell: /scripts/myscript -f it fails with: fatal: [admin1]: FAILED! =\> {“changed”: true, “cmd”: “/scripts/dnscopy.pl -f”, “delta”: “0:00:02.025735”, “end”: “2018-12-04 09:34:11.123312”, “failed”: true, “rc”: 2, “start”: “2018-12-04 09:34:09.097577”, “stderr”: “Can’t exec "rndc": No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.\nrndc -s dns1 reload failed: No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”, “stderr\_lines”: [“Can’t exec "rndc": No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”, “rndc -s dns1 reload failed: No such file or directory at /scripts/dnscopy.pl line 296.”], “stdout”: “”, “stdout\_lines”: } Your continued help (or anybody else’s) would be appreciated. Dimitri ---
**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 4, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/7 "2018-12-04T14:56:11Z")
You script does something else with -f than without. As the error message say it can't find rndc, so I guess it's a missing path issue. ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/8 "2018-12-04T15:10:48Z")
Thanks, Kai. Now, I’m completely turned around. In order for /scripts/dnscopy.pl -f to work in the remote host itself, I must su - root first. I thought that become: yes took care of that. Here’s the playbook as it stands (and fails) now: ---
**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 4, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/9 "2018-12-04T15:24:53Z")
Become uses sudo by default unless you set become\_method: su Default I think it only will do "su root -c /scripts/dnscopy.pl -f" so if you need the - aka --login option you might need become\_flags: '-' as well ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/10 "2018-12-04T15:35:09Z")
Sorry, Kai, I’m not understanding what the playbook should look like. I’m a bit slow on the uptake. ---
**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 4, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/11 "2018-12-04T15:37:45Z")
- hosts: all   gather\_facts: false   become: yes   become\_method: su   become\_flags: '-'   tasks:     - shell: /scripts/dnscopy.pl -f       register: script\_output     - debug:         var: script\_output.stdout\_lines ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 4:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/12 "2018-12-04T16:10:37Z")
I thought that’s what I should do. I made those changes, but then the playbook is stuck/runs without completion (until it ultimately times out, I’m guessing). ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/13 "2018-12-04T17:51:54Z")
Piotr ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/14 "2018-12-04T18:49:53Z")
Piotr, After putting in the directives you mentioned, if I leave become\_method: su and become\_flags: ‘-’ in the playbook, then the playbook is stuck/runs without completion. If I take those out, leaving only become: yes, then I get the following output: ok: [admin1] =\> { “who”: { “changed”: true, “cmd”: “whoami”, “delta”: “0:00:00.006895”, “end”: “2018-12-04 13:32:06.805245”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2018-12-04 13:32:06.798350”, “stderr”: “”, “stderr\_lines”: , “stdout”: “root”, “stdout\_lines”: [ “root” ] } } If I run the script on the remote host **without** su - root, I get: Can’t exec “rndc”: No such file or directory at ./dnscopy.pl line 296. rndc -s dns1 reload failed: No such file or directory at ./dnscopy.pl line 296. If I run the script on the remote host with su - root, I get: server reload successful ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/15 "2018-12-04T19:27:53Z")
Piotr ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/16 "2018-12-04T20:07:10Z")
Piotr, The thing of it is, the script (which I didn’t write) runs the rndc (BIND Remote Name Daemon Control - we use it to reload zone files) command on our dns servers (which it locates), not on the host in which the script is located. Thus, the failure. Here’s a snippet from the script: > # rndc -s dns1 reload > > @args = (“rndc”, “-s”, “dns1”, “reload”); > system(@args) == 0 > or die “rndc -s dns1 reload failed: $!”; Changes to the script are not an option. That said, is what I’m trying to do not doable? Dimitri ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/17 "2018-12-04T20:30:46Z")
Dimitri Your script is depending on rndc residing in the host's $PATH. It might happen, that the root's profile is being set differently when you become root in Ansible playbook, than the situation when are switching to root in a regular way in SSH or terminal. This is why I asked you for more information in my previous post. A possible workaround would be to forcibly set PATH env variable when calling dnscopy.pl. but I can't give you a ready recipe because I don't have enough informaton about your system Piotr ---
**Author:** ![dyioulos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dyioulos/32/8363_2.png) [@dyioulos](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dyioulos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/18 "2018-12-04T20:48:17Z")
Piotr, Fair enough. And, I do appreciate you sticking with this. Output of “echo $PATH”: /usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/bin Output of “which rndc”: /usr/bin/which: no rndc in (/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/bin) ← not a surprise; BIND isn’t installed on this machine Output after adding - shell: “‘echo $PATH’”, etc. to playbook: ok: [admin1] =\> { “path”: { “changed”: true, “cmd”: “echo $PATH”, “delta”: “0:00:00.006128”, “end”: “2018-12-04 14:36:50.766764”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2018-12-04 14:36:50.760636”, “stderr”: “”, “stderr\_lines”: , “stdout”: “/usr/bin:/bin”, “stdout\_lines”: [ “/usr/bin:/bin” ] } } Remote machine OS os CentOS 5.11 ← yes, I know ---
**Author:** ![powcarz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3be4f8/32.png) [@powcarz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/powcarz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/19 "2018-12-04T21:21:19Z")
> /usr/bin/which: no rndc in (/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/bin) ← not a surprise; BIND isn’t installed on this machine So, do you already know what the problem is? Are you executing rndc on remote host but you dont have BIND installed on it? ---
**Author:** ![sateeshazure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sateeshazure](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sateeshazure)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180/20 "2018-12-04T21:24:21Z")
Hi, I am trying to setup communication between ansible and a windows server which is hosted in virtual machine manager. Do any one know about it. I am getting error like Bad HTTP response from server . Code 404 Thanks in advance [Next page](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-shell-with-a-switch/29180.md?page=2)