# Handling roles across multiple distributions **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ubuntu\ **Created:** [August 17, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323 "2013-08-17T08:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael-Keith\_Bernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Michael-Keith\_Bernar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael-Keith_Bernar)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323/1 "2013-08-17T08:50:17Z")
Hey all, I’d like to start by saying that Ansible is an awesome piece of software and I’m really enjoying it, **especially** after having spent the last several years in chef/puppet land. 🙂 Now then, I’m trying to setup an Ansible configuration that looks something like the following layout (pseudo-code): [https://gist.github.com/SegFaultAX/81f07ea0428728ce6e62](https://gist.github.com/SegFaultAX/81f07ea0428728ce6e62) Essentially I have different top level roles (web, app, db, etc.) described in the inventory, each with a set of Ansible roles: web: - common - nginx - … app: - common - jre - … Unfortunately my environment uses two completely incompatible operating systems (centos and ubuntu) which will require their own plays to provision and deploy. It would be great if the main.yml for each role just included the appropriate file for the distribution for the host, eg: roles/common/tasks/main.yml - hosts: CentOS include: centos.yml - hosts: Ubuntu include: ubuntu.yml roles/common/tasks/ubuntu.yml - name: install a foo, ubuntu style … - name: configure a bar, ubuntu style … roles/common/tasks/centos.yml - name: install a foo, centos style … - name: configure a bar, centos style … As far as I can tell, the above syntax (and the syntax linked in the gist) is completely invalid, but that’s my idealized solution. One option I was considering was something like this: roles/common/tasks/main.yml - include: centos.yml - include: ubuntu.yml roles/common/tasks/ubuntu.yml - name: install a foo, ubuntu style when: ansible\_distribution == ‘Ubuntu’ … - name: configure a bar, ubuntu style when: ansible\_distribution == ‘Ubuntu’ … roles/common/tasks/centos.yml - name: install a foo, centos style when: ansible\_distribution == ‘CentOS’ … - name: configure a bar, centos style when: ansible\_distribution == ‘CentOS’ … But the repeated `when` clauses create a lot of unnecessary duplication. Anyway, what’s the idiomatic way to structure my configuration? Cheers, Michael-Keith ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323/2 "2013-08-17T15:54:59Z")
Try this in roles/acme/main.yml: - include: centos.yml when: ansible\_distribution == ‘CentOS’ - include: ubuntu.yml when: ansible\_distribution == ‘Ubuntu’ This will apply the “when” statement automatically to everything within the file. Both those two includes can live in roles/acme/centos.yml and roles/acme/ubuntu.yml ---
**Author:** ![Michael-Keith\_Bernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Michael-Keith\_Bernar](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael-Keith_Bernar)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323/3 "2013-08-17T16:40:35Z")
Awesome, thanks Michael! I wasn’t clear if the condition would be properly scoped for an include, but it seems I missed the last paragraph of conditional execution in the documentation that gives an example of the above syntax. Hooray for Ansible! [http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks2.html#conditional-execution](http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks2.html#conditional-execution) Cheers, Michael-Keith ---
**Author:** ![James\_Martin2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@James\_Martin2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Martin2)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323/4 "2013-08-18T00:04:44Z")
Michael, Will this still tell me that it's skipping all the tasks for the conditional that's not met? Or do we still have to group\_by in order to suppress those messages? - James ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/handling-roles-across-multiple-distributions/13323/5 "2013-08-18T14:35:35Z")
Yep, This adds the conditional to each task and that will tell you for what hosts those tasks run and which they do not. If you use group\_by to create a dynamic host group instead you won’t see any task headers if the group size is zero, and won’t see any skipped messages. –Michael