Ansible install node with nvm

Question

I'm looking for a way to install a given version of node via ansible and nvm, the installation of nvm is working as expected because if I connect with the root user, I can execute the command nvm install 8.11.3 but this same command doesn't work with Ansible, I don't understand why.

---
- name: Install nvm
  git: repo=https://github.com/creationix/nvm.git dest=~/.nvm version=v0.33.11
  tags: nvm

- name: Source nvm in ~/.{{ item }}
  lineinfile: >
      dest=~/.{{ item }}
      line="source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh"
      create=yes
  tags: nvm
  with_items:
    - bashrc
    - profile

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: nvm install 8.11.3
...

error log

TASK [node : Install node and set version] *************************************************************************************
    fatal: [51.15.128.164]: FAILED! => {"changed": true, "cmd": "nvm install 8.11.3", "delta": "0:00:00.005883", "end": "2018-12-03 15:05:10.394433", "msg": "non-zero return code", "rc": 127, "start": "2018-12-03 15:05:10.388550", "stderr": "/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found", "stderr_lines": ["/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found"], "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": []}
        to retry, use: --limit .../.../ansible/stater-debian/playbook.retry

Answer 1

It's okay, here's the configuration that works

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: "source /root/.nvm/nvm.sh && nvm install 8.11.3" 
  args:
    executable: /bin/bash

Answer 2

I think the clue in the output you need is:

"/bin/sh: 1: nvm: not found"

To run a command without including the full path to that command (i.e. nvm rather than /the/dir/nvm/is/installed/in/nvm), then the directory that contains the command, must be in the $PATH environment variable for the shell that runs the command.

In this case it looks like that is not present for the shell that Ansible spawns, versus the shell your interactive commands run in. Change:

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: nvm install 8.11.3

to

- name: Install node and set version
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  shell: /full/path/to/nvm install 8.11.3

If you don't know what to put in place of '/full/path/to', try either:

which nvm

or

find / -name nvm