Nope, same thing. The variables donât âcarry acrossâ properly.
Here is a skeleton script (generic apart from the notify service name)
script:
test_file_write:
sequence:
- variables:
event_time: >
{{ as_timestamp(now()) | timestamp_custom('%X') }}
default_message: >
{{ event_time }} - THIS IS A TEST MESSAGE
tab1: >
{{ '\t-' }}
tab2: >
{{ '{:>18}'.format('- ') }}
newline: >
{{ '\n' }}
- service: notify.log_system_event
data:
message: |
{{ default_message }}
{{ newline }} Preceded with newline variable (There should be a blank line above this one)
{{ '\n' }} Prefixed with hard coded \n (There should be a blank line above this one)
{{ tab1 }} Preceded with tab1 variable
{{ '\t-' }} Preceded with hard coded \t-
{{ tab2 }} Preceded with tab2 variable (using format)
{{ '{:>18}'.format('- ') }} Preceded with hard coded tab using format
And here is the output
11:26:44 - THIS IS A TEST MESSAGE
Preceded with newline variable (There should be a blank line above this one)
Prefixed with hard coded \n (There should be a blank line above this one)
- Preceded with tab1 variable
- Preceded with hard coded \t-
- Preceded with tab2 variable (using format)
- Preceded with hard coded tab using format
This is a variable, after the variable is executed, itâs resolved in HA. This leads it to have all leading and trailing whitespace removed, and now the value can be accessed as a variable in the remainder of the automation.
This is a message, the resolution is not performed here because all outputs will be text.
To get around this, make the output of tab complex (a list or dictionary). The resolver does not recursively traverse complex objects, so the whitespace wonât be stripped.
sequence:
- variables:
tab: >
{{ {'text': '\n{:>5}'.format('- ') } }}
- service: notify.my_file
data:
message: >
Text Line 1
{{ tab.text }} Text Line 2
No, there should be a carriage return. Not a blank line. A blank line would be 2 carriage returns. The variable is stripping your whitespace.
Correct, because the message is retaining the carriage return inside the template.
Same as above
script:
test_file_write:
sequence:
- variables:
event_time: >
{{ as_timestamp(now()) | timestamp_custom('%X') }}
default_message: >
{{ event_time }} - THIS IS A TEST MESSAGE
tests: >
{{ {
'tab1': '\t-',
'tab2': '{:>18}'.format('- '),
'newline': '\n'
} }}
- service: notify.log_system_event
data:
message: |
{{ default_message }}
{{ test.newline }} Preceded with newline variable (There should be a blank line above this one)
{{ '\n' }} Prefixed with hard coded \n (There should be a blank line above this one)
{{ test.tab1 }} Preceded with tab1 variable
{{ '\t-' }} Preceded with hard coded \t-
{{ test.tab2 }} Preceded with tab2 variable (using format)
{{ '{:>18}'.format('- ') }} Preceded with hard coded tab using format
Thanks for all of that. very helpful as usual.
And I think I have it all working now.
But more importantly I understand why!
A quick side question: Is there any certainty that variables will be defined and assigned in the order they are declared? Simply put, can one variable reliably reference another one defined higher up in the same variable block?
There is no certainty⌠however itâs an ordered dictionary and I personally treat it like it has 100% certainty. Iâd suggest you do the same. Ordered dicts are sorted based on the order in which an item was added. If HA changes that base class (unlikely), then youâd run into issues.
FYI you can look at my configuration on github, youâll notice I heavily rely on this assumption in automations and scripts.
So is it possible to have an input_text containing a message line that is then used in various scripts?
The catch is that I would like that message line to include variable names which get resolved in the script.
For example:
input_text:
message_line:
message_line contains a string, for example,
"The time is {{ now() }}"
Is there any way to use this in a script and have it resolve the contents of the input_text?
For example as an illustration, this, which doesnât work:
What are you trying to do with the input_text? Why do you need it? Pretty sure they strip whitespace via the service call. You may be able to retain it doingâŚ
No that doesnât do what Iâd like, itâs pretty much what I tried.
Since you asked, I have a system of logging âeventsâ. Every one of my âsubsystemsâ e.g. heating, lights, irrigation (optionally) write to their own log. Every log is formatted in the same way so rather than repeating the variables section in ever script that handles logging I thought I could use input texts.
It has the added benefit of being able to change the formatting easily.
So,
For the sake of getting to bottom of whether what I want to do is actually possible, here is a complete simple example.
If I set the input texts as follows: test_file_line: {{ now() }} - Somthing here - and something here test_file_new_line: \n test_file_tab: '{:>27}'.format('- ')
I get the following one line written to the file:
2024-02-09 14:28:28.554068+00:00 - Something here - and something here\n'{:>27}'.format('- ')Line 2\n'{:>27}'.format('- ')Line 3
Whereas I would like 3 separate lines:
2024-02-09 14:28:28.554068+00:00 - Something here - and something here - Line 2 - Line 3
(The input text for newline and tab arose simply to stop having to remember how to format those things. For example I have trouble remembering where it is \n and where it is <br> and the syntax for format is not intuitive to me).
Ok, in my opinion youâre going about this wrong. But if you want to use the input_texts, you can create new lines by just repeating the service call.
That gives me almost the same as I was getting before. The only difference being that each line is indeed a new line.
All of the formatting is still being treated literally:
2024-02-09 18:41:18.983237+00:00 - Something here - something here - and something here
\n
'{:>27}'.format('- ')
But in any case I canât let this go withouit reponseâŚ
I can honestly think of no situation you would say that and I wouldnât be interested in how you think I should be doing it.
If you have the time and inclination Iâd be interested to hear.
To recap, I want to be able to write the same lines which contain formatting and variable names to many different files from many different scripts.
The reason to use input texts was simply to avoid re-defining the lines in every script and to be able to change the formatting and variables in one place and without having to reload all the scripts
Here is an actual real world example output that I have been using in my testing:
23:57:53.457035 LOW - DOOR_OR_WINDOW_EVENT (Initiated By automation.access_monitoring_door_or_window_event - Triggered By binary_sensor.front_door)
Front Door CLOSED
--------------------
Which is created every time a door or window is opened or closed by this service call:
Iâll be a bit before I can read & reply fyi. Going on a trip, but Iâm not ghosting you.
Edit: this doesnât seem to use input texts, so it seems you are doing what Iâd do.
Edit: had a chance to look. Youâre being limited by the notification service. You may need to swap to a command line command that writes to a file instead.
Iâve tried a command line which I use successfully elsewhere to delete the first line or all lines in a file
shell_command:
#=== Delete all lines from a log file
logging_log_file_delete_all_lines: >
truncate -s 0 /config/my_log_{{ log_name }}.log
#=== Delete the first line of a log file
logging_log_file_delete_first_line: >
sed -i '1d' /config/my_log_{{ log_name }}.log
But I canât the command to work for adding a line to the end of a file. None of these seem to work
#=== Write a line to a log file using printf
logging_log_file_write_a_line_printf: >
printf "{{ line }} printf" >> /config/my_log_{{ log_name }}.log
#=== Write a line to a log file using echo
logging_log_file_write_a_line_echo: >
echo {{ line }} echo >> /config/my_log_{{ log_name }}.log
#=== BASIC Write a line to a log file using printf
logging_log_file_write_a_line_printf_basic: >
printf "testline printf" >> /config/my_log_system_event.log
#=== BASIC Write a line to a log file using echo
logging_log_file_write_a_line_echo_basic: >
echo testline echo >> /config/my_log_system_event.log
Here are the responses to the two âbasicâ commands:
: 
)
