Automate User Password Change using Ansible Playbook - ansible

Question

I would like to change a user password if it exists, but I get this error
here my code
- name: Check for foo user
with_items: foo
changed_when: false
command: grep {{ item }} -q /etc/passwd
register: find_user
- name: Update foo user's Password
user:
name: foo
update_password: always
password: $6$rounds=656000$ZjMwlMPWqwGKF1nY$JbarjwHGtlr5PD3Yqfb5phz18gnHujSgmpD29DxsXQ7a7UdhuO
when: find_user is changed
TASK [Check for foo user] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [192.168.56.124]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "cmd": "grep -w 'foo' /etc/passwd", "delta": "0:00:00.003024", "end": "2019-07-01 12:59:45.966160", "msg": "non-zero return code", "rc": 1, "start": "2019-07-01 12:59:45.963136", "stderr": "", "stderr_lines": [], "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": []}

Answer 1

Use getent module to test the existence of the user.
- name: Read passwd
getent:
database: passwd
- name: Update foo users password
user:
name: foo
update_password: always
password: ...
when: "'foo' in getent_passwd"

Answer 2

That's because the command task you have is having an exit code = 1 when the username does not exist in the /etc/passwd file:
[http_offline#greenhat-29 tests]$ grep foo -q /etc/passwd
[http_offline#greenhat-29 tests]$ echo $?
1
[http_offline#greenhat-29 tests]$ grep root -q /etc/passwd
[http_offline#greenhat-29 tests]$ echo $?
0
[http_offline#greenhat-29 tests]$
What you can do, is instruct this task to NOT fail when exit code from the grep command is not 0 or 1. To do that you need to add this clause in the command task:
failed_when: find_user.rc !=0 and find_user.rc !=1
The whole task would look like:
- name: Check for foo user
with_items: foo
changed_when: false
command: grep {{ item }} -q /etc/passwd
register: find_user
failed_when: find_user.rc !=0 and find_user.rc !=1