Ansible Pilot

Ansible troubleshooting - fatal template error while templating string

How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the "FATAL template error while templating string" Ansible runtime error.

September 21, 2021
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Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting and specifically about the “FATAL template error while templating string” error. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

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error code

---
- name: file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    myfile: "{{ ~/example.txt }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Creating an empty file
      ansible.builtin.file:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
        state: touch

error execution

$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/template_error_string_error.yml
PLAY [file module demo] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [Creating an empty file] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [demo.example.com]: FAILED! => {"msg": "An unhandled exception occurred while templating '{{ ~/example.txt }}'. Error was a <class 'ansible.errors.AnsibleError'>, original message: template error while templating string: unexpected '~'. String: {{ ~/example.txt }}"}
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

fix code

---
- name: file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    myfile: "~/example.txt"
  tasks:
    - name: Creating an empty file
      ansible.builtin.file:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
        state: touch

fix execution

$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/template_error_string_fix.yml
PLAY [file module demo] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [Creating an empty file] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    
failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

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