Ansible command using variable input fails to execute - ansible

Question

Below I'm trying to get a command running involving input from previous output, in this case copy flash:file01 flash:file02 with 2 derived from the REGEX_FILTERING task.
- name: REGEX_FILTERING
command: "cat /home/ubuntu/show_switch.txt"
register: line1
- debug: var="{{ line1.stdout_lines | regex_replace('(?<!\*).?') }}"
register: number
- name: COMMAND_INPUT
cli_command:
command: 'copy flash:file01 flash:file0 {{ number }}'
prompt: '[confirm]'
answer: ''
Here's the error message:
<ommited>
"stdout_lines": [
"Switch/Stack Mac Address : d4a0.2ae9.ec00",
" H/W Current",
"----------------------------------------------------------",
" 1 Member 001f.9df6.2d80 5 0 Ready ",
"*2 Master d4a0.2ae9.ec00 15 0 Ready ",
" 3 Member 0016.c733.cd00 5 0 Ready"
]
}
TASK [debug] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /home/ubuntu/test1.yml:109
ok: [CSR1] => {
"2": "2"
}
TASK [COMMAND_INPUT] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /home/ubuntu/test1.yml:112
<192.168.255.133> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: ubuntu
<192.168.255.133> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120="` echo /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120 `" ) && sleep 0'
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/modules/network/cli/cli_command.py
<192.168.255.133> PUT /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/tmpkozHVx TO /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120/AnsiballZ_cli_command.py
<192.168.255.133> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120/ /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120/AnsiballZ_cli_command.py && sleep 0'
<192.168.255.133> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120/AnsiballZ_cli_command.py && sleep 0'
<192.168.255.133> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'rm -f -r /home/ubuntu/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-7528uUJSLh/ansible-tmp-1542986468.48-164922344690120/ > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
The full traceback is:
WARNING: The below traceback may *not* be related to the actual failure.
File "/tmp/ansible_cli_command_payload_U1p385/__main__.py", line 150, in main
response = connection.get(**module.params)
File "/tmp/ansible_cli_command_payload_U1p385/ansible_cli_command_payload.zip/ansible/module_utils/connection.py", line 173, in __rpc__
raise ConnectionError(to_text(msg, errors='surrogate_then_replace'), code=code)
fatal: [CSR1]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"answer": [
""
],
"check_all": false,
"command": "copy flash:file01 flash:file0 {'failed': False, u'2': u'2', 'changed': False}",
"prompt": [
"[confirm]"
],
"sendonly": false
}
},
"msg": "copy flash:file01 flash:file0 {'failed': False, u'2': u'2', 'changed': False}\r\n ^\r\n% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.\r\n\r\nCSR1#\r\nCSR1#"

Answer 1

"command": "copy flash:file01 flash:file0 {'failed': False, u'2': u'2', 'changed': False}",
Is happening because the register: number is not in fact the number, rather it's the ansible result of the debug: output. Since number is a python dict, when it is injected into your command, it is just serialized as if str() were called upon the dict
It is far more likely that what you want is to capture that variable locally in the task, to make it just be the result of the jinja2 expression, and not the result of an ansible task:
- cli_command:
command: 'copy flash:file01 flash:file0 {{ number }}'
vars:
number: "{{ line1.stdout_lines | regex_replace('(?<!\*).?') }}"
I also suspect you will be happier with line1.stdout, which is a str of the entire output, versus line1.stdout_lines which is a list of str, making the regex_replace on a list kind of weird -- I'm surprised it actually even let you do that, to be honest