How to forward STDOUT of 'ansible-playbook' command to a logfile from within a Python script?

Question

I have the following Python file, teststout.py

import os,sys

class Logger(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.terminal = sys.stdout
        self.log = open("odareplayout.log", "a")

    def write(self, message):
        self.terminal.write(message)
        self.log.write(message)

    def flush(self):
        # this flush method is needed for python 3 compatibility.
        # this handles the flush command by doing nothing.
        # you might want to specify some extra behavior here.
        pass

sys.stdout = Logger()

def main():
    print('Hello World')
    cmd = 'ansible-playbook test3.yaml'
    os.system(cmd)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main ()

and the following playbook, test3.yaml

---
 - name: Test
   hosts: localhost

   vars:
     akash: "myhost"

   tasks:

   - name: Get timestamp from the system
     shell: "date +%Y-%m-%d%H-%M-%S"
     register: tstamp

   - name: date and time
     debug:
        var: ansible_date_time

And this is the output when I run the Python script with python3 teststout.py

Hello World

PLAY [Test] *************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Get timestamp from the system] ************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]

TASK [date and time] ****************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "ansible_date_time": {
        "date": "2023-03-23",
        "day": "23",
        "epoch": "1679547708",
        "hour": "05",
        "iso8601": "2023-03-23T05:01:48Z",
        "iso8601_basic": "20230323T050148745778",
        "iso8601_basic_short": "20230323T050148",
        "iso8601_micro": "2023-03-23T05:01:48.745778Z",
        "minute": "01",
        "month": "03",
        "second": "48",
        "time": "05:01:48",
        "tz": "UTC",
        "tz_offset": "+0000",
        "weekday": "Thursday",
        "weekday_number": "4",
        "weeknumber": "12",
        "year": "2023"
    }
}

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

cat odareplayout.log 
Hello World

If you see above, only print statement is getting captured in the file but I want to capture this entire output into a file along with the stdout.

I have already referred various posts and the Ansible documentation about Logging, but I didn't help.

Can someone please help here?

Answer 1

Based on the already mentioned answers under Running shell command and capturing the output and your given example code print.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import os,sys
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

class Logger(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.terminal = sys.stdout
        self.log = open("print.log", "a") # to append

    def write(self, message):
        self.terminal.write(message)
        self.log.write(message)

    def flush(self):
        # this flush method is needed for python 3 compatibility.
        # this handles the flush command by doing nothing.
        # you might want to specify some extra behavior here.
        pass

sys.stdout = Logger()

def main():
    print('Hello World')

    # Collecting STDOUT and STDERR

    output = Popen(["ansible-playbook", "debug.yml"], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
    response = output.communicate()

    # Printing STDOUT only (since we get a list with two elements counting from zero)
    print(response[0]) 
    # print(response[1])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main ()

called via python print.py for a sample playbook debug.yml

---
- hosts: localhost
  become: false
  gather_facts: false

  tasks:

  - debug:
      msg: "Hello World"

the output will result into the requested one

Hello World

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
Monday 27 March 2023  18:29:25 +0200 (0:00:00.039)       0:00:00.039 **********

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] =>
  msg: Hello World

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Playbook run took 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
Monday 27 March 2023  18:29:25 +0200 (0:00:00.048)       0:00:00.087 **********
===============================================================================
debug ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.05s

and a log file print.log

~/test$ cat print.log
Hello World

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
Monday 27 March 2023  18:29:25 +0200 (0:00:00.039)       0:00:00.039 **********

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] =>
  msg: Hello World

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Playbook run took 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
Monday 27 March 2023  18:29:25 +0200 (0:00:00.048)       0:00:00.087 **********
===============================================================================
debug ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.05s

---

The same approach is working from within Custom Modules like in Ansible Custom Module: Are print statements possible?

Just add under def run_module(): right before module.exit_json(**result)

    output = Popen(["python", "-c", "print ('Hello World');"], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)

    # Or for an STDERR example
    # output = Popen(["python", "--version"], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)

    response = output.communicate()
    result['stdout'] = response[0]
    result['stderr'] = response[1]

and don't forget to from subprocess import Popen, PIPE.

---

Please Note

The result and format of the playbook output depends on the configured Callback plugins, as well used versions and based on the installation environment.

~/test$ ansible-playbook --version
ansible-playbook [core 2.11.12]
...
  python version = 2.7.5 (default, May 27 2022, 11:27:32) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
...
~/test$ cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.9 (Maipo)