How do I get just the STDOUT of a salt state? - salt-stack

Question

my output now
I'm learning salt stack right now and I was wondering if there was a way to get the stdout of a salt state and put it into a document and then send it to the master. Or is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

To achieve this, we'll have to save the execution of the script in a variable. It will contain a hash containing keys that are showing up under changes:. Then the contents of this variable (stdout) can be written to a file.
{% set script_res = salt['cmd.script']('salt://test.sh') %}
create-stdout-file:
file.managed:
- name: /tmp/script-stdout.txt
- contents: {{ script_res.stdout }}

Answer 2

The output is already going to the master. It would be better to actually output in json and query down to the data you want in your document on the master.
such as the following
Normal output
$ sudo salt salt00\* state.apply tests.test3
salt00.wolfnet.bad4.us:
----------
ID: test_run
Function: cmd.run
Name: echo test
Result: True
Comment: Command "echo test" run
Started: 10:39:51.103057
Duration: 18.281 ms
Changes:
----------
pid:
8661
retcode:
0
stderr:
stdout:
test
Summary for salt00.wolfnet.bad4.us
------------
Succeeded: 1 (changed=1)
Failed: 0
------------
Total states run: 1
Total run time: 18.281 ms
json output
$ sudo salt salt00\* state.apply tests.test3 --out json
{
"salt00.wolfnet.bad4.us": {
"cmd_|-test_run_|-echo test_|-run": {
"name": "echo test",
"changes": {
"pid": 9057,
"retcode": 0,
"stdout": "test",
"stderr": ""
},
"result": true,
"comment": "Command \"echo test\" run",
"__sls__": "tests.test3",
"__run_num__": 0,
"start_time": "10:40:55.582273",
"duration": 19.374,
"__id__": "test_run"
}
}
}
json parsed down with jq to just the stdout
$ sudo salt salt00\* state.apply tests.test3 --out=json | jq '.|.[]|."cmd_|-test_run_|-echo test_|-run"|.changes.stdout'
"test"
Also, for the record it is considered bad practice to put code that changes the system into jinja. Jinja always runs when a template is rendered and there is no way to control if it happens so just running test=true tests will still run the jinja code that makes changes which could be very harmful to your systems.