How to strip quotes from a variable in Ansible?

I'm trying to get the value of a variable in a file into an Ansible variable so I can use it.

Here's what I've got:

 - name: extract Unique Key shell: "grep UNIQUE_KEY ../config.py | cut -d' ' -f 3" register: command_output - set_fact: unique_key: x{{ command_output.stdout | regex_replace("^'", '') | regex_replace('^"', '') | regex_replace("'$", '') | regex_replace('"$', '') }} - set_fact: unique_key: "{{ unique_key | regex_replace('^x', '') }}" - debug: var=unique_key

This works, but feels kludgy and looks ugly.

I've already tried to add sed to my original shell module, but I couldn't figure out how to get the quotes escaped correctly. I also couldn't figure out how to escape the regex_replace to get it to work in a single variable assignment.

Is there a simpler way to go from this:

"TEST"

or

'TEST'

to this:

TEST

in Ansible? (I'm also really new to Ansible so that's not helping either)

EDIT: After the answer by @Vladimir-Botka which I initially accepted, I found this issue:

If I don't strip the quotes and embed the variable in another variable, it keeps the quotes:

I need to use this value to construct a path:

vars: service_location: "/opt/{{ unique_key }}-scheduler-service"

If I don't remove the quotes using my method above, The variable will contain the quotes as in this output of a debug statement:

ok: [fedorasvr1] => { "service_location": "/opt/'TEST'-scheduler-service"
}

2 Answers

The short answer is "omit the first and the last character" if the quotes are part of the string

 - set_fact: unique_key: command_output.stdout[1:-1]

Internal interpretation is all the same. The quotes control the expansion of the variables. See 7.3.1. Double-Quoted Style and 7.3.2. Single-Quoted Style.

As an example. The play below

 - hosts: localhost vars: var1: TEST var2: 'TEST' var3: "TEST" tasks: - template: src: test.j2 dest: test

and the template

 shell> cat test.j2 {{ var1 }} {{ var2 }} {{ var3 }}

give

 shell> cat test TEST TEST TEST

The quotes, if part of the string, can be removed. As an example the play below

 - hosts: localhost vars: regex: "[`'\"]" replace: "" service_location: "/opt/{{ item|regex_replace(regex, replace) }}-scheduler-service" tasks: - debug: var: service_location loop: - '`TEST`' - '"TEST"' - '''TEST''' - "'TEST'"

gives

 ok: [localhost] => (item=`TEST`) => item: '`TEST`' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service ok: [localhost] => (item="TEST") => item: '"TEST"' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service ok: [localhost] => (item='TEST') => item: '''TEST''' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service ok: [localhost] => (item='TEST') => item: '''TEST''' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service

It is also possible to use custom filter_plugins/string_filters.py which might be more convenient than complex escape constructs.

As an example. The play below

 - hosts: localhost vars: replace: "" service_location: "/opt/{{ item.0|string_replace(item.1, replace) }}-scheduler-service" tasks: - debug: var: service_location with_together: - - '`TEST`' - '"TEST"' - "'TEST'" - - '`' - '"' - "'"

gives

 ok: [localhost] => (item=[u'`TEST`', u'`']) => item: - '`TEST`' - '`' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service ok: [localhost] => (item=[u'"TEST"', u'"']) => item: - '"TEST"' - '"' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service ok: [localhost] => (item=[u"'TEST'", u"'"]) => item: - '''TEST''' - '''' service_location: /opt/TEST-scheduler-service

FWIW, see other examples of filter_plugins.

Slightly different, but maybe related: I was getting unwanted quotes when using a lookup to initialize a variable which were then used in a "blockinfile" task. But it turns out the quotes were caused by the "blockinfile" and not the lookup, ie:

- name: set some variables set_fact: my_var: "{{ lookup('ini', 'my_var section=variables file=~/myconf.ini') }}"
- name: update myconf.cfg blockinfile: dest: myconf.cfg state: present create: true owner: "{{user}}" group: "{{user}}" block: | [Credentials] access_key_id = blabla secret_access_key = "{{my_var}}" become: true

removing the quotes from this line worked:

secret_access_key = "{{my_var}}"