How do I pass a dictionary to an ansible ad-hoc command? - ansible

Question

If I have an ansible ad-hoc command that wants a dictionary or list valued argument, like the queries argument to postgresql_query, how do I invoke that in ansible ad-hoc commands?
Do I have to write a one-command playbook? I'm looking for a way to minimise the numbers of layers of confusing quoting (shell, yaml/json, etc) involved.
The ansible docs mention accepting structured forms for variables. So I tried the yaml and json syntax for the arguments:
ansible -m postgresql_query -sU postgres -a '{"queries":["SELECT 1", "SELECT 2"]}'
... but got ERROR! this task 'postgresql_query' has extra params, which is only allowed in the following modules: ....
the same is true if I #include a file with yaml or json contents like
cat > 'query.yml' <<'__END__'
queries:
- "SELECT 1"
- "SELECT 2"
__END__
ansible -m postgresql_query -sU postgres -a #queries.yml

Answer 1

You can define a dictionary in a JSON variable to pass it as parameter next:
ansible -m module_name -e '{"dict": {"key": "value"}}' -a "param={{ dict }}"
(parameters positions are arbitrary)

Answer 2

I have most of a solution - a way to express something like a shell script or query payload without extra quoting. But it's ugly:
ansible hostname -m postgresql_query -sU postgres -a 'query="{{query}}"' -e #/dev/stdin <<'__END__'
query: |
SELECT 'no special quotes needed' AS "multiline
identifier works fine" FROM
generate_series(1,2)
__END__
Not only is that shamefully awful, but it doesn't seem to work for lists (arrays):
ansible hostname -m postgresql_query -sU postgres -vvv -a 'query="{{query}}"' -e #/dev/stdin <<'__END__'
queries:
- |
SELECT 1
- |
SELECT 2
__END__
fails with
hostname | FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"err": "syntax error at or near \"<\"\nLINE 1: <bound method Templar._query_lookup of <ansible.template.Tem...\n ^\n",
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"autocommit": false,
"conninfo": "",
"queries": null,
"query": "<bound method Templar._query_lookup of <ansible.template.Templar object at 0x7f72531c61d0>>"
}
},
"msg": "Database query failed"
}
so it looks like some kind of lazy evaluation is breaking things.