Default variables in with_items dict

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1

I have a line like this, where “configs” variable is defined as a list of dicts/hashes:

template: src={{ item.name }}.j2 dest=“/etc/config/{{ item.target_name|item.name }}”

with_items: configs

It basically allows the generated filename to be customised, but fall back to the template name if none is provided. The problem is it doesn’t work, the generated filename is literally {{ item.target_name|item.name }}. But it works fine without the default syntax (ie just {{ item.name }}). Is that expected behaviour and is there any workaround?

2

I thought of a workaround, but also doesn’t work:

  • set_fact: item.target_name = item.name
    when: item.target_name is not defined
    with_items: configs

This way I could just always use item.target_name. It runs on the correct items, but seems that set_fact doesn’t work as I expected for an item dict, as item.target_name is still undefined on the next task.

3

I think what you want, is to use the ‘default’ filter.

Such as:

template: src={{ item.name }}.j2 dest=“/etc/config/{{ item[‘target_name’]|default(item.name) }}”

with_items: configs

I also changed target_name to not use dot notation, as that can sometimes still create issues with the default filter. In the above case, if item does not have a ‘target_name’ key, it will default to ‘item.name’.

4

I see, that worked fine, thanks.