Following the principle of variable precedence, I am wondering why
there is no such concept for files.
Example:
I have the following playbooks:
- -- ansible-playbook-some_app ------
- - ansible-playbook-some_app
- files
- some_files
- private_ssl_files <- not in the git repo, used for tests only
- tasks
- main.yml
- test.yml <- playbook used for test
- Vagrantfile <- VM used for test
- .git
- -----------------------------------
^ this playbook is intended to be the most generic possible, I do not
want any host specific data in the folder layout, since it will be used
for a lot of different host.
- -- ansible-playbook-host ----------
- - ansible-playbook-host_1
- files
- private_ssl_files <- the ssl files for the host
-roles
- some_app <- git submodule of the previous playbook
- other_app_1 <- git submodule
- ...
- the_rest_of_the_playbook_layout
- ------------------------------------
I only want submodules in my roles folder to avoid a mess and loosing
track of what is modified on my host. What I would like, is to be able
to put my ssl files for the host in the root files folder, and not in
the roles/some_app/files folder. It seems that by default ansible does
not allow this. Unlike the vars, there is no files precedence.
Is there a clean way to handle this?
I see a different use case of files (even templates) precedence, is it
a planned feature? Does it has been discussed earlier?
I am new to ansible, so it may be possible that I do not see the
ansible-way of doing it. Do not hesitate to point me to the revelant
discussion/doc/example-playbook
I only want submodules in my roles folder to avoid a mess and loosing
track of what is modified on my host. What I would like, is to be able
to put my ssl files for the host in the root files folder, and not in
the roles/some_app/files folder. It seems that by default ansible does
not allow this. Unlike the vars, there is no files precedence.
src=../../{{ inventory_hostname }}/file.txt ?
Is there a clean way to handle this?
I see a different use case of files (even templates) precedence, is it
a planned feature? Does it has been discussed earlier?
Consider looking into "with_first_found" if you want to look into multiple
locations and have a default.
Consider looking into "with_first_found" if you want to look into
multiple locations and have a default.
Both those solutions assumes that I know what is the path to the file,
wich may not be true. If the playbook may be a role of one playbook, or
a role of a role, wich then make it not always possible to know the
inclusion level.
By accident I discover something that allow me to do file precedence.
Basically, instead of putting src=<file_name> I used
src=files/<file_name>. By default Ansible use only `./files/<file_name>`
of the playbook, by adding `files/`, Ansible get the first <file_name>
found in a `files` folder, thus using precedence.
So, is it a bug, or a feature? If it is a bug, it should be promoted to
a feature, it is really handy to have file precedence when you try to
have generic playbook. If it is already a feature, I missed the part in
the doc specifying that
