ansible "when:" directive: check file exists, and other nifty things?

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1

I can run a task conditionally, depending on the existence of a file, as follows:

  • name: check if the file exists
    stat: path=/my/file
    register: file_register
  • name: do the actual task
    include: my_subtask.yml
    when: not file_register.stat.exists

Is it not possible to do smarter things in the when clause? Possible with a Jinja2 directive? I tried to search for the documentation of the lookup() function I see sometimes, but cannot find it. Is is part of Ansible or of Jinja? Is it usable here?

Thanks in advance,
Eric

2

lookups are part of ansible, lookups run only on the 'master' so for
this to work all actions would be local.