Hi all,
It seems like the to_json filter behaves differently depending on:
- Whether it's passed the result of a template call directly, or whether
the result of the template call is placed into a fact first
- Whether the template call actually does any substitutions or not
- Whether I'm using ansible community <=v4.10.0 or >=5.0.1
I'm including a test playbook that illustrates the behavior below, along
with the relevant portions of the output. I'm relatively new to Ansible, so
wanted to check in here before submitting a bug report -- this may be just
a nuance I'm not grasping.
When I run the playbook using Ansible 4.10.0, to_json turns the value into
a JSON string, if and only if it's passed the result of a template call
which does no substitutions. If the template has a variable in it, or if
the result of the template call is stored in a fact before being sent to
to_json, the JSON looks how I'd expect.
When using Ansible 5.0.1, the value is turned into a string whenever
to_json is passed the result of a template call, regardless of whether the
template has a variable in it or not.
There's a lot of permutations here, and I'm not sure which, if any, of
these behaviors are unexpected. Thanks in advance for any help!
- John
*Test playbook:*
---
- name: Test with trivial template
hosts: localhost
tasks:
- copy:
dest: "trivial.json.j2"
content: '{ "hello": "world" }'
- set_fact:
template_result: "{{ lookup('template', 'test.json.j2') }}"
- set_fact:
json_from_fact_trivial_template: "{{ template_result | to_json }}"
json_from_template_trivial_template: "{{ lookup('template', 'test.json.j2')
| to_json }}"
- debug:
var: json_from_fact_trivial_template
- debug:
var: json_from_template_trivial_template
- name: Test with template including variable
hosts: localhost
tasks:
- copy:
dest: "withvar.json.j2"
content: '{% raw %}{ "{{ greeting }}": "world" }{% endraw %}'
- set_fact:
greeting: 'howdy'
- set_fact:
template_result: "{{ lookup('template', 'withvar.json.j2') }}"
- set_fact:
json_from_fact_template_withvar: "{{ template_result | to_json }}"
json_from_template_withvar: "{{ lookup('template', 'withvar.json.j2') |
to_json }}"
- debug:
var: json_from_fact_template_withvar
- debug:
var: json_from_template_withvar
*Output with Ansible 4.10.0:*
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_fact_trivial_template": {
"hello": "world"
}
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_template_trivial_template": "\"{ \\\"hello\\\":
\\\"world\\\" }\""
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_fact_template_withvar": {
"howdy": "world"
}
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_template_withvar": {
"howdy": "world"
}
}
*Output with Ansible 5.0.1:*
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_fact_trivial_template": {
"hello": "world"
}
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_template_trivial_template": "\"{ \\\"hello\\\":
\\\"world\\\" }\""
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_fact_template_withvar": {
"howdy": "world"
}
}
TASK [debug]
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"json_from_template_withvar": "\"{\\\"howdy\\\": \\\"world\\\"}\""
}
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