Allow strftime to display time in UTC (#70351)

changelogs/fragments/strftime-in-utc.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+  - Provide a `utc` option for strftime to show time in UTC rather than local time

docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_filters.rst

@@ -2117,6 +2117,13 @@ To format a date using a string (like with the shell date command), use the "str
     {{ '%Y-%m-%d' | strftime(0) }}          # => 1970-01-01
     {{ '%Y-%m-%d' | strftime(1441357287) }} # => 2015-09-04
 
+.. versionadded:: 2.13
+
+strftime takes an optional utc argument, defaulting to False, meaning times are in the local timezone::
+
+    {{ '%H:%M:%S' | strftime }}           # time now in local timezone
+    {{ '%H:%M:%S' | strftime(utc=True) }} # time now in UTC
+
 .. note:: To get all string possibilities, check https://docs.python.org/3/library/time.html#time.strftime
 
 Getting Kubernetes resource names

lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py

@@ -95,14 +95,18 @@ def to_datetime(string, format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"):
     return datetime.datetime.strptime(string, format)
 
 
-def strftime(string_format, second=None):
+def strftime(string_format, second=None, utc=False):
     ''' return a date string using string. See https://docs.python.org/3/library/time.html#time.strftime for format '''
+    if utc:
+        timefn = time.gmtime
+    else:
+        timefn = time.localtime
     if second is not None:
         try:
             second = float(second)
         except Exception:
             raise AnsibleFilterError('Invalid value for epoch value (%s)' % second)
-    return time.strftime(string_format, time.localtime(second))
+    return time.strftime(string_format, timefn(second))
 
 
 def quote(a):