How to quote difficult and long vars in ansible?

Question

I want to create some vars such as delay and size in ansible

delay: */5 * * * * root stat --printf="\%Y\t\%n\n" /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne 's/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_backup_delay{directory="\2"} \1/p' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom
size: */5 * * * * root du -sb /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne 's/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_directory_size_bytes{directory="\2"} \1/p' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom

But when i start playbook i receive an error

PLAY [all] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ERROR! Syntax Error while loading YAML.
  did not find expected alphabetic or numeric character

The error appears to be in '/home/dude/gitlab.com/office-deploy/code/inventories/host_vars/main1/main.yml': line 1, column 9, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:


delay: */5 * * * * root stat --printf="\%Y\t\%n\n" /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne 's/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_backup_delay{directory="\2"} \1/p' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom
        ^ here
We could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with
unbalanced quotes. If starting a value with a quote, make sure the
line ends with the same set of quotes. For instance this arbitrary
example:

    foo: "bad" "wolf"

Could be written as:

    foo: '"bad" "wolf"'

Can anyone say to me which quotes i should use?

I use '''...''', ' "..." ' and nothing work

Answer 1

According your description of the syntax problem and the comment about YAML multiline strings , I've created a small test with Block Scalar Style : folded and Block Chomping : strip

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

  vars:

    DELAY: >-
      */5 * * * * root stat --printf="\%Y\t\%n\n" /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne 's/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_backup_delay{directory="\2"} \1/p' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom
    SIZE: >-
      */5 * * * * root du -sb /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne 's/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_directory_size_bytes{directory="\2"} \1/p' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom

  tasks:

  - name: Show var
    debug:
      var: DELAY

  - name: Show msg
    debug:
      msg: "{{ SIZE }}"

resulting into an output of

TASK [Show var] ***************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] =>
  DELAY: '*/5 * * * * root stat --printf="\%Y\t\%n\n" /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne ''s/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_backup_delay{directory="\2"} \1/p'' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/backup_delay.prom'

TASK [Show msg] ***************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] =>
  msg: '*/5 * * * * root du -sb /pool/slow/backup/daily/* | sed -ne ''s/^\([0-9]\+\)\t\(.*\)$/node_directory_size_bytes{directory="\2"} \1/p'' > /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ && mv /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom.$$ /var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector/directory_size.prom'

Please take note that using delay would result into a

[WARNING]: Found variable using reserved name: delay

Maybe another approach for you could be Templating or concatenate variable strings .