Ansible - convert yaml file to json

Using the Ansible filters from_yaml and to_json it is easy to construct a task to convert a yaml file to JSON.

Here is the Ansible playbook yaml_to_json.yml (in a real world example the names of the files would probably be parameterized).

---

- hosts: localhost

  tasks:
    - shell: cat my.yaml
      register: result

    - set_fact:
        myvar: "{{ result.stdout | from_yaml | to_json }}"

    - copy:
        content: "{{ myvar }}"
        dest:    my.json

Here is an example of a yaml input file which contains some special characters, lists, strings, numbers etc.

---

xx:
 - a:
 - b:
     A: aadf7{fdfd"öög
     B: [ 'asdfadsf*5%@@@"masdf' , 123456 ]

yy:
 n:
   C: 'AAdf7{fdfd"öög'
   D: [ 'ASdfadsf*5%@@@"masdf' , 789.56 ]
 m:

When run via ansible-playbook yaml_to_json.yml the JSON output file below (run via jq .) is generated.

{
  "yy": {
    "m": null,
    "n": {
      "C": "AAdf7{fdfd\"\\u00f6\\u00f6g",
      "D": [
        "ASdfadsf*5%@@@\"masdf",
        789.56
      ]
    }
  },
  "xx": [
    {
      "a": null
    },
    {
      "b": {
        "A": "aadf7{fdfd\"\\u00f6\\u00f6g",
        "B": [
          "asdfadsf*5%@@@\"masdf",
          123456
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Note how lists and dictionaries and special characters are put into the resp. JSON format.

Also note that I am using the Ansible copy module. A shell: echo "{{ myvar }}" > my.json does not work since it does not take care of the correct quote and special characters subsitutions.