Newbie ansible user here.

I'm trying to print output of ps into csv file but somehow its printing on next column rather than next row.

This is my playbook xml:

- name: Write running process into a csv file
  hosts: servers
  gather_facts: yes

  vars:
    output_path: "./reports/"
    filename: "process_{{ date }}.csv"

  tasks:
  - name: CSV - Generate output filename
    set_fact: date="{{lookup('pipe','date  %Y%m%d%H%M%S')}}"
    run_once: true

  - name: CSV - Create file and set the header
    lineinfile:
      dest: "{{ output_path }}/{{ filename }}"
      line:
        PID,Started,CPU,Memory,User,Process
      create: yes
      state: present
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: CSV - Get ps cpu
    ansible.builtin.shell:
      ps -e -o %p, -o lstart -o ,%C, -o %mem -o user, -o %c --no-header
    register: ps

  - name: CSV - Write into csv file
    lineinfile:
      insertafter: EOF
      dest: "{{ output_path }}/{{ filename }}"
      line: "{inventory_hostname}},{{ps.stdout_lines}}"
    loop: "{{ ps.stdout_lines }}"
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: CSV - Blank lines removal
    lineinfile:
      path: "./{{ output_path }}/{{ filename }}"
      state: absent
      regex: '^\s*$'
    delegate_to: localhost

current output is like

Example of desired output :

CodePudding user response：

... but somehow its printing on next column rather than next row ... current output is like ...

This is because within your task "CSV - Write into CSV file" you are printing out all stdout_lines for each iteration steps instead of one, the line for the iteration step only.

To print out line by line one could use an approach like

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

  tasks:

  - name: CSV - Get ps cpu
    shell:
      cmd: ps -e -o %p, -o lstart -o ,%C, -o %mem -o user, -o %c --no-header
    register: ps

  - name: Show 'stdout_lines' one line per iteration for CSV
    debug:
      msg: "{{ inventory_hostname }}, {{ ps.stdout_lines[item | int] }}"
    loop: "{{ range(0, ps.stdout_lines | length) | list }}"