I'd like to filter the JSON output of ad-hoc ansible commands - e.g. grab the long list of "facts" for multiple hosts, and show only one that could be several levels deep, such as ansible_lsb.description
, so I can quickly compare what versions of software they're running, check accurate times or timezones, whatever.
This works:
ansible myserver -m setup -a 'filter=ansible_lsb'
myserver | SUCCESS => {
"ansible_facts": {
"ansible_lsb": {
"codename": "wheezy",
"description": "Debian GNU/Linux 7.11 (wheezy)",
"id": "Debian",
"major_release": "7",
"release": "7.11"
}
},
"changed": false
}
However, as the setup module docs state, "the filter option filters only the first level subkey below ansible_facts", so this fails:
ansible myserver -m setup -a 'filter=ansible_lsb.description'
myserver | SUCCESS => {
"ansible_facts": {},
"changed": false
}
(though for reference, you can use dot notation in other places such as a task's when conditional)
Is there a way to filter the JSON keys before the output is displayed?
Standard setup
module can apply filter only on "top-level" facts.
To achieve what you want, you can make an action plugin with setup
name to apply custom filters.
Working example ./action_plugins/setup.py
:
from ansible.plugins.action import ActionBase
class ActionModule(ActionBase):
def run(self, tmp=None, task_vars=None):
def lookup(obj, path):
return reduce(dict.get, path.split('.'), obj)
result = super(ActionModule, self).run(tmp, task_vars)
myfilter = self._task.args.get('myfilter', None)
module_args = self._task.args.copy()
if myfilter:
module_args.pop('myfilter')
module_return = self._execute_module(module_name='setup', module_args=module_args, task_vars=task_vars, tmp=tmp)
if not module_return.get('failed') and myfilter:
return {"changed":False, myfilter:lookup(module_return['ansible_facts'], myfilter)}
else:
return module_return
It calls original setup
module stripping myfilter
parameter, then filters result with simple reduce implementation if task is not failed and myfilter is set. Lookup function is very simple, so it will not work with lists, only with objects.
Result:
$ ansible myserver -m setup -a "myfilter=ansible_lsb.description"
myserver | SUCCESS => {
"ansible_lsb.description": "Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS",
"changed": false
}