Ansible cli_command loop register issues

Question

I can't seem to get the register to works with cli_command and looping of multiples commands. Any suggestions?

-

name:  Run show commands
  hosts:
    - all
  connection: network_cli
  gather_facts: no

  vars:
     shcmd:
       - show bgp sum | match 3356
       - show config protocols bgp group Level3

  tasks:

    - name: create report directory if needed
      set_fact:
        report_dir: "{{ user_data_path }}/reports"

    - name: confirm report directory
      file:
        path: "{{ report_dir }}"
        state: directory

    - name: Run commands
      cli_command:
          command: "{{item}}"
      register: "showcmds"
      with_items: "{{shcmd}}"

    - debug:
        msg: "{{ showcmds.stdout_lines }}"
        with_items: "{{shcmd}}"

Answer 1

There are a couple of things here:

1. The indent of "with_items" on the debug module is wrong, it should the same level as the "debug" word.

2. More importantly, in this case the "with_items" variable on the debug is wrong. When you added "register" to the cli_command module, you actually said "collect the output from every iteration and return the whole lot". Therefore, you need to iterate over the variable you created with "register", not the variable you passed into the command itself. Something like below (I'm not at a computer atm so this will need to be checked):

    - debug:
        msg: "{{ item.stdout_lines }}"
      with_items: "{{ showcmds }}"

edit: OK, sounds like this specific module doesn't return stdout_lines. Try running the debug with just "{{ showcmds }}" and without the "with_items" to get the actual structure of the variable.