[SOLVED] Search for a string in a file using Ansible regex

Issue

I have a file which has one of more entries like seen in the grep command below:

grep SSLFile /tmp/httpd.conf
Output:
        SSLFile  /web/certs/mycert7.crt

I wish to grab the filename 2nd column from the output i.e "/web/certs/mycert7.crt" using ansible for all entries that start with SSLFile using Ansible regex.

Below is any ansible playbook:

- name: Find file
  lineinfile:
    path: "/tmp/httpd.conf"
    regexp: '^SSLFile .*'
    state: absent
  check_mode: yes
  changed_when: false
  register: getfiles

- debug:
    msg: "{{ item.split()[1] }}"
  with_items:
    - "{{ getfiles.stdout_lines }}"

Unfortunately I do not get the greped string as well as got a runtime error as below:

TASK [Find file] ***************************************
task path: /app/test.yml:895
ok: [10.9.9.34] => {"backup": "", "changed": false, "found": 0, "msg": ""}

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
task path: 
/app/test.yml:905
fatal: [10.9.9.34]: FAILED! => {"msg": "template error while templating string: unexpected char u'_' at 7. String: {{ getfiles.stdout_lines }}"}

Here is the httpd.conf

<VirtualHost *:443>
        <LimitExcept GET POST>
        order deny,allow
        deny from all
        </LimitExcept>
        </Location>
        SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:!SHA:!MD5:!RC4:!3DES
        SSLHonorCipherOrder On
        SSLFile  /tmp/certs/mycert.crt
        SSLKeyFile  /tmp/certs/mycert.key

I tried regex ^SSLFile and it does not even match string on https://regex101.com/

Update: Trying regexp: '\\sSSLFile.*' got the match however unable to print due to the error below.

task path: /tmp/test.yml:914
ok: [10.9.9.34] => {"backup": "", "changed": false, "found": 1, "msg": "1 line(s) removed"}

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
task path: /tmp/test.yml:924
fatal: [10.9.9.34]: FAILED! => {"msg": "template error while templating string: unexpected char u'_' at 7. String: {{ getfiles.stdout_lines }}"}

Can you please suggest what is the issue with my playbook and how can I get it to work ?

Solution

Can you try something like below.

- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    input : "{{ lookup('template', '/tmp/httpd.conf') }}"
    target: "{{ input | regex_replace('\\sSSLFile\\s*(.*)', '\\1')}}"

  tasks:
  - debug:
     msg: "{{target }}"

Or you can do it just with shell as below

  - name: test
    shell: cat /tmp/httpd.conf | grep -v '^#'| grep SSLFile | awk '{print $2}'
    register: op
  - debug:
     msg: "{{op.stdout_lines}}"

Answered By - Smily