Watch: Decoding Ansible Syntax Errors: A Troubleshooting Guide

test report.txt

syntax_error.yml:

---

• name: win_copy module Playbook

hosts: all

become: false

gather_facts: false

vars:

source: "report.txt"

destination: "Desktop/report.txt"

tasks:

- name: copy report.txt

ansible.windows.win_copy:

src: "{{ source }}"

dest: "{{ destination }}

Error Execution

Output:

$ ansible-playbook -i win/inventory troubleshooting/syntax_error.yml

ERROR! We were unable to read either as JSON nor YAML, these are the errors we got from each:

JSON: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Syntax Error while loading YAML.

found unexpected end of stream

The error appears to be in 'ansible-pilot/troubleshooting/syntax_error.yml': line 14, column 1, but may

be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:

src: "{{ source }}"

dest: "{{ destination }}

^ here

We could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with

missing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they

start a value. For instance:

with_items:

• {{ foo }}

Should be written as:

with_items:

• "{{ foo }}"

Fix Code

syntax_fix.yml:

---

• name: win_copy module Playbook

hosts: all

become: false

gather_facts: false

vars:

source: "report.txt"

destination: "Desktop/report.txt"

tasks:

- name: copy report.txt

ansible.windows.win_copy:

src: "{{ source }}"

dest: "{{ destination }}"

Fix Execution

Output:

$ ansible-playbook -i win/inventory troubleshooting/syntax_fix.yml

PLAY [win_copy module Playbook] *

TASK [copy report.txt]

ok: [WindowsServer]

PLAY RECAP **

WindowsServer : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0