Ansible: loop our shell command(Linux user group search) result and display the groups - ansible

Question

Ansible: loop our shell command(Linux user group search) result and display the groups
Task to check if group exist
- name: "Checking if group doesn't exist"
shell: "grep -i {{ item.group }} /etc/group"
register: presence
loop: "{{ UserAddList.add_users }}"
ignore_errors: true
no_log: true
Json input file:
UserAddList is a json file
{
"add_users": [
{
"name": "test1_123",
"group": "test1_123",
"additional_groups":
[
"test2",
"group1"
],
"password" : "test1_newcdsaf",
"sudo_entry": "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL",
"comment": "test1"
}
],
"delete_users": [
]
}
Task to display the groups doesn't exist
- name: The following groups does't' exist
debug:
msg:
"{{ item._ansible_item_label.group }}"
loop: "{{ presence.results }}"
output:
(item={
'_ansible_parsed': True,
'stderr_lines': [
],
u'changed': True,
u'stdout': u'',
'_ansible_item_result': True,
u'msg': u'non-zero return code',
u'delta': u'0:00:00.008175',
'stdout_lines': [
],
'_ansible_item_label': {
u'comment': u'test1',
u'password': u'test1_newcdsaf',
u'group': u'test1_123',
u'name': u'test1_123',
u'sudo_entry': u'ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL',
u'additional_groups': [
u'test2',
u'group1'
]
},
u'end': u'2019-12-10 14:23:15.725676',
'_ansible_no_log': True,
'item': {
u'comment': u'test1',
u'password': u'test1_newcdsaf',
u'group': u'test1_123',
u'name': u'test1_123',
u'sudo_entry': u'ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL',
u'additional_groups': [
u'test2',
u'group1'
]
},
u'cmd': u'grep -i test1_123 /etc/group',
u'failed': True,
u'stderr': u'',
u'rc': 1,
u'invocation': {
u'module_args': {
u'warn': True,
u'executable': None,
u'_uses_shell': True,
u'_raw_params': u'grep -i test1_123 /etc/group',
u'removes': None,
u'argv': None,
u'creates': None,
u'chdir': None,
u'stdin': None
}
},
u'start': u'2019-12-10 14:23:15.717501'
})=>{
"changed": false,
"item": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": "grep -i test1_123 /etc/group",
"delta": "0:00:00.008175",
"end": "2019-12-10 14:23:15.725676",
"failed": true,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"_raw_params": "grep -i test1_123 /etc/group",
"_uses_shell": true,
"argv": null,
"chdir": null,
"creates": null,
"executable": null,
"removes": null,
"stdin": null,
"warn": true
}
},
"item": {
"additional_groups": [
"test2",
"group1"
],
"comment": "test1",
"group": "test1_123",
"name": "test1_123",
"password": "test1_newcdsaf",
"sudo_entry": "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL"
},
"msg": "non-zero return code",
"rc": 1,
"start": "2019-12-10 14:23:15.717501",
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [
],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": [
]
},
"msg": "test1_123"
}
I don't want to display the whole output, I just want to display the groups information.
The debug is printing all the input data as well.
Please any suggestions

Answer 1

The debug is printing all the input data as well.
It's actually not the debug: task that is printing your data, ansible is showing you what it is looping over. However, you are using loop: over the top-level presence.results list, and .results contains not only the output you care about, but also the invocation parameters, success or failure, and the actual returned data that you care about
There are two ways of fixing that problem: tell ansible that you only want it to show something smaller in the loop label, or change the loop: to actually only loop over the deleted users
In the first way, loop_control: will do that (it even cites your exact circumstance in the docs saying When looping over complex data structures, the console output of your task can be enormous. To limit the displayed output, use the label directive with loop_control):
- name: The following groups does't' exist
debug:
msg:
"{{ item._ansible_item_label.group }}"
loop: "{{ presence.results }}"
loop_control:
label: "{{ item.item.name }}"
In the second way, just select out the group you care about and msg: it:
- name: The following groups does't' exist
debug:
msg:
"{{ item }}"
loop: "{{ presence.results | map(attribute='item') | map(attribute='group') | list }}"