Access dict key when using with_subelements

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1

when using with_dict, item.key retrieves the dict key and item.value retrieves the value.

however, when using with_subelements and having the first item being looped over be a dict, item.0 seems to return only the value. Is there a way

concrete example:

`
vars:
users:
bob:
authorized_keys:

  • “ssh-rsa a…”
  • “ssh-rsa b…”
    alice:
    authorized_keys:
  • “ssh-rsa c…”

tasks:

  • authorized_key: user=??? key=“{{ item.1 }}”
    with_subelements:
  • “{{ users }}”
  • authorized_keys
    `

How do I retrieve the username? I understand that I could change users into a list and add username as a property. I want to avoid that because this users list is used for lots of different things where being able to look up information about a user by username is required.

2

Hi Peter,

Did you find a solution to this? I’m facing the same issue and it sure sucks!

Thanks

3

I have been using a horrible hacky workaround, specifically, adding the key as a field to the dict element:

`
vars:
users:
bob:
name: bob
authorized_keys:

  • “ssh-rsa a…”
  • “ssh-rsa b…”
    alice:
    name: alice
    authorized_keys:
  • “ssh-rsa c…”

tasks:

  • authorized_key: user=item.0.name key=“{{ item.1 }}”
    with_subelements:
  • “{{ users }}”
  • authorized_keys

`

This is difficult to maintain because the two names can get out of sync, it is not intuitive at all that making a new user should include the name again when its already used as the key. It is just the least worst solution I’ve found.

I wish there was a sane, unified, flexible solution to looping in Ansible. As it stands there appear to be a bunch of one-off non-interoperable looping constructs designed for very narrow purposes. This is easily the most frustrating aspect of using Ansible for anything non-trivial.

4

Thanks for the reply. i agree…I just converted my dict in the same way…Just wanted to check if there was something better out there that anyone has found :stuck_out_tongue:

Slavek

5

I have workaround for this. You basically have to use “include” as a function. Let’s say your {{users}} structure looks like this:

`
users:
ssh_keys:

  • somekeyfdsfdsfdsfsdfsdyttytry
  • someotherkeyfdsryekfdlmgdfm
    `

In your main.yml there would be:

`

  • include: ssh_key.yml
    _users_ssh_keys={{item.value.ssh_keys}}
    _users_username={{item.key}}
    with_dict: “{{users}}”

`

And in ssh_key.yml you would iterate over all ssh keys like this:

`