Register command output as 2 separate variables - bash

Question

I have an Ansible playbook that runs a script over my remote machines.
The script finds log files, determine the application the log file came from (so it would know the destination directory), and uploads the files back to the Ansible server (using scp).
Just because it worth mentioning - there are 2 different playbooks, one for Windows servers, using a PowerShell script, and the other is for Linux servers, using a bash script.
I would like to eliminate the scp part for those scripts, and instead using the fetch module in my playbooks. But I'm facing a problem with that - my scripts generates 2 variables for each application on each server:
the log file, full path.
the destination directory in the Ansible server (determined by the servers name and the application name).
My current playbook looks like that (this is the Windows one):
---
- hosts: <WindowsHosts>
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: Find and Copy Windows Applications Logs
script: fetchwinFindLogs.ps1 {{ server_partition }} {{days}} {{ansibleSRV_Port}} {{ansibleSRV_IP}}
register: result
- debug:
var: result
# - fetch: src={{ result }} dest={{ result }}
# with_items: "{{ result.stdout_lines }}"
The output:
PLAY [<WinHost>] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Find and Copy Windows Applications Logs] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [<WinHost>]
TASK [debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [<WinHost>] => {
"result": {
"changed": true,
"failed": false,
"rc": 0,
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18\r\n/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/\r\nC:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18\r\n/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/\r\nC:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18\r\n/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/\r\nC:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18\r\n/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/\r\n",
"stdout_lines": [
"C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/",
"C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/",
"C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/",
"C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/"
]
}
}
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
<WinHost> : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
How do I use the 2 separate values gotten from the script, so the fetch module would know to direct each log file from each application to the correct directory in my Ansible server?
This includes, of course, looping over every 2 values, so it would direct the correct log to the correct destination directory (since, again, the first value will always be the full path log, and the second would be the destination directory, for each application separately).

Answer 1

There is possibly plenty of ways to achieve this.
Here are two of them:
Using the extended loop variables and a when condition, you could skip every other item with a when and a modulo % and get the item along with the ansible_loop.nextitem.
Here is an example for that:
- hosts: all
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- debug:
msg:
- "src: {{ item  }}"
- "dest: {{ ansible_loop.nextitem }}"
loop: "{{ result.stdout_lines }}"
when: ansible_loop.index % 2 == 1
loop_control:
extended: yes
vars:
result:
stdout_lines:
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/"
This yields the recap:
PLAY [all] ********************************************************************************************************
TASK [debug] ******************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=C:\<Maindir>\<App1>\Logs\platform.log.2020-09-18) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/"
]
}
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/)
ok: [localhost] => (item=C:\<Maindir>\<App2>\Logs\platform.log.2020-09-18) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/"
]
}
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/)
ok: [localhost] => (item=C:\<Maindir>\<App3>\Logs\platform.log.2020-09-18) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/"
]
}
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/)
ok: [localhost] => (item=C:\<Maindir>\<App4>\Logs\platform.log.2020-09-18) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/"
]
}
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/)
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Another idea would be to use Python array slicing to separate odd from even elements and Ansible zip filter.
This would be the playbook:
- hosts: all
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- debug:
msg:
- "src: {{ item.0 }}"
- "dest: {{ item.1 }}"
loop: "{{ result.stdout_lines[::2] | zip(result.stdout_lines[1::2]) | list }}"
vars:
result:
stdout_lines:
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/"
- "C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18"
- "/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/"
This yields the recap:
PLAY [all] ********************************************************************************************************
TASK [debug] ******************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=['C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18', '/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/']) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App1>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App1>/"
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18', '/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/']) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App2>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App2>/"
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18', '/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/']) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App3>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App3>/"
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18', '/<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/']) => {
"msg": [
"src: C:\\<Maindir>\\<App4>\\Logs\\platform.log.2020-09-18",
"dest: /<LinuxMainDir>/<logs>/Applications/<serverName>.<App4>/"
]
}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
When I would have a slight preference for the second approach, I could understand it could be less readable for people not used to Python's array slicing.