Issue with the success/succeeded filter

[jainnikhil30]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

Success filter

ANSIBLE VERSION

2.3.0.0

CONFIGURATION

OS / ENVIRONMENT

SUMMARY

Success filter not working as expected. So if there is a task1 which is skipped and if we have a task2 which has a filter as when: result|success after the skipped task1, task2 still runs. Although theoretically task1 was skipped so result should have "skipped" value and hence task2 should either error out or should be skipped. Attaching the playbook for better understanding.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

--
- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Run a ps command
      shell: ps -ef | grep fred | grep -v grep
      ignore_errors: yes
      register: result
      when: ansible_distribution == 'CentOS'
    - debug: var=result

    - name: if rc zero then run this task
      shell: echo "rc zero"
      register: result2
      ignore_errors: yes
      when: result.rc == 0
    - debug: var=result2


    - name: if success then run this task
      shell: echo "it works"
      register: result4
      when: result|succeeded
    - debug: var=result4

EXPECTED RESULTS

If the first task1 " Run a ps command" is skipped
task2 "if rc zero then run this task" and task3 "if success then run this task" should error out or should be skipped because of the when condition.

ACTUAL RESULTS

task3 "if success then run this task" run successfully.

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************12:30:04


TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************12:30:04

ok: [localhost]


TASK [Run a ps command] ********************************************************12:30:05

skipping: [localhost]


TASK [debug] *******************************************************************12:30:05

ok: [localhost] => {

    "changed": false, 

    "result": {

        "changed": false, 

        "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False", 

        "skipped": true

    }

}


TASK [if rc zero then run this task] *******************************************12:30:05

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "The conditional check 'result.rc == 0' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional (result.rc == 0): 'dict object' has no attribute 'rc'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/var/lib/awx/projects/andyc/rc_test.yml': line 11, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n    - name: if rc zero then run this task\n      ^ here\n"}

...ignoring


TASK [debug] *******************************************************************12:30:06

ok: [localhost] => {

    "changed": false, 

    "result2": {

        "failed": true, 

        "msg": "The conditional check 'result.rc == 0' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional (result.rc == 0): 'dict object' has no attribute 'rc'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/var/lib/awx/projects/andyc/rc_test.yml': line 11, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n    - name: if rc zero then run this task\n      ^ here\n"

    }

}


TASK [if success then run this task] *******************************************12:30:06

changed: [localhost]


TASK [debug] *******************************************************************12:30:06

ok: [localhost] => {

    "changed": false, 

    "result4": {

        "changed": true, 

        "cmd": "echo \"it works\"", 

        "delta": "0:00:00.007862", 

        "end": "2017-05-24 12:30:06.927419", 

        "rc": 0, 

        "start": "2017-05-24 12:30:06.919557", 

        "stderr": "", 

        "stderr_lines": [], 

        "stdout": "it works", 

        "stdout_lines": [

            "it works"

        ]

    }

}


PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************12:30:07

localhost                  : ok=6    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0   

[bcoca]

success is currently defined as 'not failed'

[Shaps]

@jainnikhil30 adding and not result|skipped to your last condition will make the task skip also if the first task was skipped

[bcoca]

Possible Misunderstanding

Hi!

Thanks very much for your submission to Ansible. It sincerely means a lot to us.

We believe the ticket you have filed is being somewhat misunderstood, as one thing works a little differently than stated.

The filter is working as designed, skipped status is a 'form of success' as either the condition was not met so the task 'worked as expected' or the module itself forced a skip as requirements were not met in a 'non failure' way (check mode).

In the future, this might be a topic more well suited for the user list, which you can also post here if you'd like some more help with the above.

• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-project

Thank you once again for this and your interest in Ansible!

[jctanner]

The "success" test code is defined in https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/plugins/test/core.py#L37-L39

def success(result):
    ''' Test if task result yields success '''
    return not failed(result)

[DylanYoung]

What about a completed filter that does as the OP was expecting? It seems more useful than saving 4 characters over not result|failed, no?

[sblaisot]

The filter is working as designed

This is not what have been stated back in 2015 in #13161