Ansible playbook not working trying to run make & configure with complex switches

Question

This is a follow-on to this question. I'm trying to use Ansible to provision a Vagrant VM. The VM is running CentOS 6.4. I'm using the following (abbreviated) ansible playbook:

- hosts: default
  vars:
    home: '/home/vagrant'
    curl_version: '7_19_7'
    curl_url: 'https://github.com/bagder/curl/archive/curl-{{ curl_version }}.tar.gz'
    curl_dir: '{{ home }}/curl-curl-{{ curl_version }}'

  # user: vagrant
  remote_user: vagrant
  sudo: yes

  tasks:

  - name: Ensure required packages and installed and up to date - pt1
    yum: pkg={{ item }} state=present
    with_items:
      - make
      - gcc
      - etc...

  # Lots more yum tasks in here

  - name: Ensure CURL source downloaded
    get_url: url={{ curl_url }} dest=/home/vagrant/curl-{{ curl_version }}.tar

  - name: Extract CURL source
    command: tar -zxf {{ home }}/curl-{{ curl_version }}.tar creates={{ curl_dir }}

  - name: Copy ssh patch over
    copy: src=./files/ssh.c.patch dest={{ home }}/ssh.c.patch

  - name: Patch CURL with openssl
    shell: patch -t {{ curl_dir }}/lib/ssh.c {{ home }}/ssh.c.patch chdir={{ curl_dir }}/lib
    when: path_file_result.changed

  - name: Build CURL with openssl
    command: 'chdir={{ curl_dir }} "{{ item }}"'
    with_items:
      - ./buildconf
      - ./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss
      - make
      - make install
      - ldconfig

Vagrant is working fine and the Ansible playbook runs successfully up to the last task 'Build CURL with openssl' - which fails, like so:

    TASK: [Build CURL with openssl] *********************************************** 
    changed: [default] => (item=./buildconf) => {"changed": true, "cmd": ["./buildconf"], "delta": "0:00:10.709817", "end": "2014-02-07 02:26:44.802652", "item": "./buildconf", "rc": 0, "start": "2014-02-07 02:26:34.092835", "stderr": "configure.ac:78: installing `./compile'
    configure.ac:73: installing `./config.guess'
    configure.ac:73: installing `./config.sub'
    configure.ac:65: installing `./missing'
    Makefile.am: installing `./depcomp'
    configure.ac:137: installing `./config.guess'
    configure.ac:137: installing `./config.sub'
    docs/examples/Makefile.am: installing `./depcomp'", "stdout": "buildconf: autoconf version 2.63 (ok)
    buildconf: autom4te version 2.63 (ok)
    buildconf: autoheader version 2.63 (ok)
    buildconf: automake version 1.11.1 (ok)
    buildconf: aclocal version 1.11.1 (ok)
    buildconf: libtool version 2.2.6 (ok)
    buildconf: libtoolize found
    buildconf: GNU m4 version 1.4.13 (ok)
    buildconf: running libtoolize
    buildconf: running aclocal
    buildconf: running aclocal hack to convert all mv to mv -f
    buildconf: running autoheader
    buildconf: cp lib/curl_config.h.in src/curl_config.h.in
    buildconf: running autoconf
    buildconf: running in ares
    buildconf: running automake
    buildconf: OK"}

    failed: [default] => (item=./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss) => {"cmd": ["./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss"], "failed": true, "item": "./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss", "rc": 2}
    msg: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
    failed: [default] => (item=make) => {"changed": true, "cmd": ["make"], "delta": "0:00:00.001828", "end": "2014-02-07 02:26:45.003968", "item": "make", "rc": 2, "start": "2014-02-07 02:26:45.002140"}
    stderr: make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
    failed: [default] => (item=make install) => {"cmd": ["make install"], "failed": true, "item": "make install", "rc": 2}
    msg: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
    changed: [default] => (item=ldconfig) => {"changed": true, "cmd": ["ldconfig"], "delta": "0:00:00.009685", "end": "2014-02-07 02:26:46.096829", "item": "ldconfig", "rc": 0, "start": "2014-02-07 02:26:46.087144", "stderr": "", "stdout": ""}

FATAL: all hosts have already failed -- aborting

So, the ./buildconf step works, but the ./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss step seems to be failing with [Errno 2] No such file or directory. I presume this is because it's trying to run that whole string like it was a single command?

If I change it to use shell instead of command, I get this instead:

failed: [default] => (item=./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss) => {"changed": true, "cmd": " \"./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss\" ", "delta": "0:00:00.001171", "end": "2014-02-07 02:31:34.862373", "item": "./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss", "rc": 127, "start": "2014-02-07 02:31:34.861202"}
stderr: /bin/sh: ./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss: No such file or directory

I've verified that all the tasks up to that point work, and the files are downloaded and extracted to the expected places and the patch works (see here).

After the task fails (or if you comment it out), if you SSH into the VM that's being configured, and run all the same build steps yourself - using the exact values from the playbook, it works.

I'm still pretty new to Ansible and I'm not sure why this isn't working? What am I doing wrong? Is there some way to format or quote that configure command differently so it gets interpreted properly, if that's the issue? Should I be using raw for this? Or something else?

Solution

Solution is to change this:

shell: 'chdir={{ curl_dir }} "{{ item }}"'

to this:

shell: "{{ item }}"
args:
  chdir: "{{ curl_dir }}"

The documentation for the shell module now addresses this trickiness in the formatting. The complete working build task currently looks like this:

- name: Build CURL with openssl
  shell: "{{ item }}"
  args:
    chdir: "{{ curl_dir }}"
  with_items:
    - ./buildconf
    - ./configure --with-gssapi --with-libidn --with-libssh2 --prefix=/usr --without-nss
    - make
    - make install
    - ldconfig