User error or bug with cli_parse TTP and TextFSM usage?

[netopsengineer]

Hello,

I am trying to use the TTP and TextFSM parsers like such, this is my TTP task:

- name: Show ip-prefix-list.
  cli_command:
    command: show filter ip 104 entry 65535 | match "Primary Action"
  register: nokia_show_ip_prefix_info

- name: Pass text and command
  ansible.utils.cli_parse:
    text: "{{ nokia_show_ip_prefix_info['stdout'] }}"
    parser:
      name: ansible.utils.ttp
      template_path: templates/nokia_show_ip_filter_state_parser.ttp
  register: parser_output

I have a valid ttp parser at the template_path specified, Ansible 3.0, with 2.10.6 base installed, ttp is installed, ttp works with python which is 3.8.2, this template works with this interpreter when utilized in a python script, I am receiving output from the cli_command in the previous task, which is using the Nokia Galaxy Collection module. I'm on Mac OS Big Sur, for what its worth.

The collections are installed into a folder specified in ansible.cfg in my project, of /collections, when I run requirements.yml, which contains the collections in question, I receive the following, making me think I'm up to date and not missing anything:

Starting collection install process Skipping 'ansible.netcommon' as it is already installed Skipping 'nokia.sros' as it is already installed Skipping 'ansible.utils' as it is already installed

When I run the playbook with -vvv, I receive the following

File "/Volumes/Seagate/codeProjects/myTestProject/collections/ansible_collections/ansible/utils/plugins/action/cli_parse.py", line 374, in run self._result["parsed"] = result["parsed"] KeyError: 'parsed'

What am I missing? I get the same error if I try to use TextFSM, via utils.textfsm as the parser. Let me know if I can provide further details, would love to get this working.

[ganeshrn]

Going through the code for ttp and textfsm sub-plugins I can see an issue in code at line https://github.com/ansible-collections/ansible.utils/blob/main/plugins/sub_plugins/cli_parser/ttp_parser.py#L102 and https://github.com/ansible-collections/ansible.utils/blob/main/plugins/sub_plugins/cli_parser/textfsm_parser.py#L97 which returns error key in result whereas the expected key is errors (https://github.com/ansible-collections/ansible.utils/blob/main/plugins/action/cli_parse.py#L368). Please try to replace error with errors in the sub-plugins at the line I shared. After that, it should print the template path that it is looking for.

If it still does not fic the issue can you please share the contents of nokia_show_ip_prefix_info['stdout'] and templates/nokia_show_ip_filter_state_parser.ttp so that we can try to reproduce it at our end.

[ganeshrn]

Raised PR #51 to fix the known issue. Please check if the patch in the PR help fixe the issue you are seeing.

[netopsengineer]

@ganeshrn This indeed fixed it! I tried TextFSM, and will try TTP but I suspect the same, and I noticed in the doc strings on the parse method there is the word "errors" referenced, good eye! Funny that I found the bug, only to find myself a new problem, my template not being found :) I had to give the absolute path on the template_path keyword and it worked. I'm still trying to find an elegant way for it to just find the templates in /templates of my role, I will try renaming a few of the commands or setting the OS as nokia manually and seeing if it will find them that way. Thank you for taking a look at this! I get alot of use out of these parsers!