YAML stdout callback plugin doesn't output stdout from command module

[geerlingguy]

SUMMARY

Issue migrated from https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/39122

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

(Though maybe this is a feature idea?)

COMPONENT NAME

plugins/callback/yaml.py

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible 2.5.1
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/Users/jgeerling/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.13 (default, Jul 18 2017, 09:17:00) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.1.0 (clang-802.0.42)]

CONFIGURATION

 17:27:10 ~/Dropbox/VMs/infrastructure/solr/solr $ ansible-config dump --only-changed
ANSIBLE_NOCOWS(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = True
ANSIBLE_PIPELINING(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = True
ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = /tmp/ansible-ssh-%%h-%%p-%%r
DEFAULT_FORKS(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = 20
DEFAULT_HOST_LIST(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = [u'/etc/ansible/hosts']
DEFAULT_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = True
DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = [u'/Users/jgeerling/Dropbox/VMs/roles']
DEFAULT_STDOUT_CALLBACK(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = yaml
RETRY_FILES_ENABLED(/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) = False

OS / ENVIRONMENT

N/A

SUMMARY

When using the Ansible default configuration (default stdout callback plugin), and running command module commands either via playbook or ad-hoc commands, command output directed at stdout is printed to the console on the machine running Ansible, e.g.:

$ ansible myserver -a "echo 'testing'"
myserver | SUCCESS | rc=0 >>
testing

When using the yaml callback plugin, stdout output is not printed to the console on the machine running Ansible, e.g.:

$ ansible myserver -a "echo 'testing'"

PLAY [Ansible Ad-Hoc] **************************************************************************************************

TASK [command] *********************************************************************************************************
changed: [myserver]

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************
myserver : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0  

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

See summary above.

EXPECTED RESULTS

I expected the yaml callback plugin to behave similar to the default callback plugin, printing stdout from command module commands to the command line while running playbooks or ad-hoc tasks.

ACTUAL RESULTS

stdout from command module commands is eaten up and never displayed on the CLI. Note that the debug module does print msgs and vars to screen.

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Files identified in the description:

• plugins/callback/yaml.py

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[felixfontein]

The default callback does not print the command stdout. The output you see in the above ad-hoc command comes from the minimal callback (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/cli/adhoc.py#L143).

[Dombo]

For anyone who's come here from the prior issue, I fixed this by forcing a reinstallation of the collections from galaxy.

ansible-galaxy install --force -r requirements.yml

Perhaps there was some corruption on my local, seeing as this started happening after I installed a new role and I think it caused a redownload of a collection.

[jnm27]

This happens everywhere for us including on new installs, so it is not an issue of reinstallation for us.

[felixfontein]

Well, there's no reason why reinstalling should ever "fix" this, since this isn't a bug and nobody implemented this feature. If someone wants to improve / change this, take a look at @sivel's suggestions here: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/39122#issuecomment-383642487

Also, changing the behavior of the YAML callback is not exactly trivial, since this is a breaking change. Having a detection for ad-hoc mode and a new configuration is probably the best solution. (No idea how to detect ad-hoc mode though...)

[jnm27]

Can detect if in adhoc by using the playbook name

def v2_playbook_on_start(self, playbook): playbook_name = os.path.basename(playbook._file_name).split('.yml')[0]

playbook_name will be "__adhoc_playbook__" when adhoc is run.

What changes would be needed to the yaml plugin to change this?

[ammygill]

Seems like this doesn't work for any ad-hoc command. I tried with other modules as well like setup and shell all are not providing the output in YAML format

[D3DeFi]

Not sure if this is related or not, but I am experiencing same problem with setup module:

~$ ansible --version
ansible 2.10.6
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['~/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = ~/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = ~/.local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.8.5 (default, Jul 28 2020, 12:59:40) [GCC 9.3.0]

~$ ANSIBLE_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=yes ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=community.general.yaml ansible -m setup localhost
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available

PLAY [Ansible Ad-Hoc] **************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [setup] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   

~$ ANSIBLE_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=yes ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=minimal ansible -m setup localhost
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
localhost | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
    ....

[felixfontein]

That's pretty much expected, since almost no callback plugin (except minimal) automatically dumps all task results if you don't provide -v. Otherwise the normal playbook output would be severly cluttered :-)

You'll see what I mean if you use the minimal callback for a regular playbook. It will be a lot less "minimal" than most other callbacks.

[weakcamel]

(...) almost no callback plugin (except minimal) automatically dumps all task results if you don't provide -v.

That's true for a regular playbook, but it's not true in case of ad-hoc tasks. For example default:

$ ANSIBLE_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=yes ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=default ansible -m setup localhost | grep -A10 "ansible_date_time"
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
        "ansible_date_time": {
            "date": "2021-04-15",
            "day": "15",
            "epoch": "1618484703",
            "hour": "12",
            "iso8601": "2021-04-15T11:05:03Z",
            "iso8601_basic": "20210415T120503978122",
            "iso8601_basic_short": "20210415T120503",
            "iso8601_micro": "2021-04-15T11:05:03.978122Z",
            "minute": "05",
            "month": "04",
$ ansible --version | head -n1
ansible 2.10.7

[felixfontein]

@weakcamel please note that ansible seems to always replace the default plugin by minimal. See https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/cli/adhoc.py#L135-L143 (I'm not sure whether self.callback can actually be something other than None.)