Ansible command output to use as environment variable

Question

I want to use the "date" command output as an environment variable.

Suppose

- tasks:
   - name: Getting start date
     shell: date +%d%b%Y:%H:%M
     register: start_date
   - debug:
       vars: start_date.stdout
     environment: 
     start_date_env:  start_date.stdout

 - name: Echo my_env_var 
   shell: echo $start_date_env
   register: some
 - debug:
     var: some.stdout

O/P

changed: [host1]

cmd: date +%d%b%Y:%H:%M

stdout: 05Aug2018:09:30

TASK [Echo my_env_var] ***********************************************************************************************************************

cmd: echo $start_date_env
ok: [host1] => {
"some.stdout": ""

I want to run date command in the above mentioned format on the remote host, then save the variable possibly as environment on the target host. This is because I've to use this variable to grab some data at the end of execution of 3-4 playbooks.. the data will depend upon start_time of playbooks and end_time of playbook. Basically two environment variable start_time and end_time which I can use in the end

In short, is it possible to set output of one command executed on host as environment variable one the same host in ansible

Also, ansible gather_fact provides a date time info. ansible_date_time.date You could use that to simplify things. The only caveat is that gather-fact must be set to true. — Michael Ababio
– Michael Ababio, Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 16:18

Baptiste Mille-Mathias · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-01 14:20:23Z

3

You have almost all the necessary code, but you're were not using environment at the correct place

 - hosts: localhost
   tasks:
    - name: Getting start date
      shell: date +%b%Y%H%M
      register: start_date

    - debug:
        var: "{{ start_date.stdout }}"

    - name: Echo my_env_var
      shell: echo $start_date_env
      environment:
        start_date_env: start_date.stdout
      register: some
    - debug:
        var: "{{ some.stdout }}"

Note I have also to correct the indentation which was incorrect and replace vars by var in first debug task. As a general advice use ansible-playbook --syntax-check to validate your playbook.

Last thing: it's better to enclose ansible variable in "{{ }}"

edited Apr 1, 2019 at 14:20

answered Aug 5, 2018 at 16:49

Baptiste Mille-Mathias

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2 Comments

DevOps Learner Over a year ago

Thank you, i'm getting the error now:FAILED! => {"msg": "template error while templating string: unexpected char u'A' at 4. String: {{05Aug2018:20:01}}"}

NOZUONOHIGH Over a year ago

The value of date +%d%b%Y:%H:%M is not a good example to register a varible, it contains digitals at the begining and : in the middle, changed to date +%b%Y%H%M works fine

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