Ansible shell module does not recognize "failed" attribute on a failed task - ansible

Question

Following code results 'dict object' has no attribute 'failed' error:
shell module:
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- shell: "not_available_command"
register: module_result
until: module_result.failed == false
retries: 2
delay: 1
Result:
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"failed": true,
"msg": "The conditional check 'module_result.failed == false' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional (module_result.failed == false): 'dict object' has no attribute 'failed'"
}
But when I changed the syntax of until as:
until: module_result.stderr == ""
It successfully retries. I executed it with -vvv option for debugging; after 2 retries it failed as expected:
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"attempts": 2,
"changed": true,
"cmd": "not_available_command",
"delta": "0:00:00.010290",
"end": "2017-09-25 17:28:14.078318",
"failed": true,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"_raw_params": "not_available_command",
"_uses_shell": true,
"chdir": null,
"creates": null,
"executable": null,
"removes": null,
"warn": true
}
},
"rc": 127,
"start": "2017-09-25 17:28:14.068028",
"stderr": "/bin/sh: 1: not_available_command: not found",
"stderr_lines": [
"/bin/sh: 1: not_available_command: not found"
],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": []
}
As seen both failed or stderr attributes are existed however failed is not recognized when tried to define until syntax.
Let's try with a different module:
get_url module:
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- get_url:
url: "http://unavailable_file_on_the_web.txt"
dest: "{{ playbook_dir }}"
register: module_result
until: module_result.failed == false
retries: 2
delay: 1
This time until: module_result.failed == false syntax works; 'failed' attribute is recognized.
So how to identify this issue on modules? Does it seem to be a bug?

Answer 1

Yes, it seems like a bug or not expected behaviour: failed field is not populated during intermediate attempts. You can inspect it with ANSIBLE_DEBUG=1:
{
"changed": true,
"end": "2017-09-25 13:01:17.269225",
"stdout": "",
"cmd": "not_available_command",
"rc": 127,
"start": "2017-09-25 13:01:17.257604",
"stderr": "/bin/sh: not_available_command: command not found",
"delta": "0:00:00.011621",
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"warn": true,
"executable": null,
"_uses_shell": true,
"_raw_params": "not_available_command",
"removes": null,
"creates": null,
"chdir": null
}
},
"warnings": []
}
In Ansible 2.4 the failed field is present.
For your information there are task result tests like failed/succeeded.
You can use them in your when/until statements:
until: module_result | succeeded
This works well in 2.2.x and 2.3.x.