Escape characters in Ansible script - bash

Question

I have an issue with a shell command in my Ansible script. This shell command doesn't work properly on the script, while it works great directly on the server.
Here is the problematic code:
- name: export keys
shell: "export NR_INSTALL_PATH=$(which php | sed 's/\/php$//g') ; export NR_INSTALL_KEY='somekey'; export NR_INSTALL_SILENT=1; newrelic-install install"
After I investigated the issue, I have noticed that the problematic part is:
which php | sed 's/\/php$//g'
This code suppose to get the executable path of PHP, and remove the last directory from the path. Instead of the expected result, i get only the first directory of the path (/bin).
Is that issue related to escape characters? Can someone tell me how to fix it?
Do I have more characters from the original command that I need to escape?
Is there a way to print the bash command that actually has been received by the server? (That's how I will be able to know what has been changed from the original command).

Answer 1

This syntax should work:
- name: export keys
shell: 'export NR_INSTALL_PATH=$(which php | sed "s/\/php$//g") ; export NR_INSTALL_KEY="somekey"; export NR_INSTALL_SILENT=1; newrelic-install install'
For example:
- set_fact:
php_path: /usr/bin/php
- shell: 'export NR_INSTALL_PATH=$(echo {{ php_path }} | sed "s/\/php$//g") ; echo $NR_INSTALL_PATH'
register: result
- debug: var=result.stdout
returns:
TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"result.stdout": "/usr/bin"
}
Is there a way to print the bash command that actually has been received by the server?
Not an Ansible way (because it is oblivious to how shell interprets the command), but you can run the shell with -x option enabled:
- command: /bin/bash -x -c 'export NR_INSTALL_PATH=$(echo {{ php_path }} | sed "s/\/php$//g") ; echo $NR_INSTALL_PATH'
register: result
- debug: var=result.err
And you will get a full trace in the log.
Notice: you asked about "bash", but it doesn't necessarily have to be bash - Ansible might run /bin/sh by default.