How to escape backslash and double quote in Ansible (script module)

Question

I\'m very new to Ansible (2.x) and I am having trouble using the script module and passing parameters with double quotes and backslashes.

Assuming we have a set vari

Answer 1

You're very close. I think you want to set a variable, not a fact, and I would suggest you use the shell module instead of the script module. shell is more forgiving when it comes to escaping and quoting complex shell commands.

---
- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    foo: test.yml
    arg: \( -name "{{ foo }}" \)
  tasks:
    - debug: var=arg
    - shell: find . {{ arg }}
      register: find
    - debug: var=find.stdout_lines

And the output:

$ ansible-playbook test.yml 

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "arg": "\\( -name \"test.yml\" \\)"
}

TASK [command] *****************************************************************
changed: [localhost]

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "find.stdout_lines": [
        "./test.yml"
    ]
}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=3    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0