# When running the shell module in a playbook, how to pass a url to the script? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412 "2015-06-05T01:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Emil\_Kacperski1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@Emil\_Kacperski1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Emil_Kacperski1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/1 "2015-06-05T01:39:28Z")
Hello, If I am running the shell module to run a script and I want to pass a url into the script how would I do this? Can’t use a variable because it’s not a dict word? For example the script is : echo $url \> test.output The playbook has a task running : shell echo.sh If I have a configuration file where the url’s are contained, how can I pass it to the script? Thanks! Emil ---
**Author:** ![user64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dec6dc/32.png) [@user64](https://forum.ansible.com/u/user64)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/2 "2015-06-05T03:58:43Z")
As I understart u want something like this? ` - name: 1 shell: ‘date’ register: echo0\_result - name: 2 shell: ‘echo Current date is - {{ echo0\_result.stdout }}’ register: echo1\_result - name: 3 debug: msg=‘1st result is {{ echo0\_result.stdout }}, 2nd is {{ echo1\_result.stdout }}’ ` ---
**Author:** ![Emil\_Kacperski1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@Emil\_Kacperski1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Emil_Kacperski1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/3 "2015-06-05T16:40:37Z")
Not quite. basically right now I have 10 individual servers where I run a script to bring up a chromium browser output is hdmi. Basically I have a videowall with monitors. Each server has the script and a local screen.conf file which contains the url string. But instead of logging into each server to change the url or restart the script I want to do this with ansible. The script and everything is running just fine using the script. Except of course I want a screen.conf to reside on the ansible server and not on the remote server. So that when I run the restart script the url is passed into the script and everything is controlled from the ansible server logging into the remote servers. Basically I am not sure how to pass on the url to the remote server script. The example I gave is very basic, just assume that the echo.sh is located on the remote server and the url file is located on the ansible server. Let’s assume screen.conf, so when I run the echo.sh using the shell module I need it to grab the url from the screen.conf and then pass it to the echo.sh script where it’s referenced as $url. Does this make sense? ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/4 "2015-06-05T18:51:55Z")
if the configuration file is local to the 'master', you can use a lookup: lookup('pipe', 'cat /file/with/url') if it is remote, backtick to do same ---
**Author:** ![Emil\_Kacperski1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@Emil\_Kacperski1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Emil_Kacperski1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/5 "2015-06-05T19:29:03Z")
Are we now going away from Ansible? Ok on ansible you have a /etc/ansible/task/url.conf file contains: [server1] [http://www.blah.com](http://www.blah.com) [server2] [http://www.blah2.com](http://www.blah2.com) Now you have a playbook: ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/6 "2015-06-05T23:16:21Z")
it would be easier if it were a host/group vars file or even a proper ini file (there is an ini lookup plugin in queue). But if that is what you have and assuming the caption is per inventory hostname:   shell: /etc/ansible/start\_video.sh {{lookup('pipe', 'grep -A1 ' + inventory\_hostname + ' /etc/ansible/task/url.conf|tail -n 1'}} ^ that should work ---
**Author:** ![Emil\_Kacperski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90ced4/32.png) [@Emil\_Kacperski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Emil_Kacperski)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/when-running-the-shell-module-in-a-playbook-how-to-pass-a-url-to-the-script/18412/7 "2015-06-05T23:32:57Z")
Thanks Brian, will look into that and see if I can make it work. Someone else brought up a very easy solution, simply have multiple config files on the ansible server and do a copy to the dest. It’s funny how I was so determined to get it done a certain way, while a simple solution was right in front of me. Thanks all for the ideas!