How can I iterate over a dictionary in a task?

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1

Say I have the following dictionary?

`
war_files:
server1:

  • file1.war
  • file2.war
    server2:
  • file1.war
  • file2.war
  • file3.war

`

Now I want to iterate over this, say a get_url task:

`

  • name: Get the files depending on server name
    get_url: src=http://some_host/{{ what to put here so I get each file for the server }}
    when: “{{item.key}} in ansible_hostname”
    with_dict: “{{ war_files }}”

`

IOW, if role is running in server1, it’ll download file1.war and file2.war; if running on server2, it downloads file1.war, fiel2.war, and file3.war. I know there’s probably other ways to do this, but I want to be able to do iterate through all the dictionary values in a single task.

2

- name: Get the files depending on server name
   get_url: src=http://some_host/{{ item }}
   with_items: "{{ war_files[ansible_hostname] }}"

3

Let me as a different question. What If I want to show ALL the files in a debug task, like this

`

  • debug: msg=“Key = {{ item.key }} values = {{ item.value }}”
    with_dict: “{{ war_files }}”
    `

I want to see an output like this

"msg" : "Key = server1 value = file1.war" "msg" : "Key = server1 value = file2.war" "msg" : "Key = server2 value = file1.war" "msg" : "Key = server2 value = file2.war" "msg" : "Key = server2 value = file3.war"

IOW, I want to iterate over the keys, then the values in each key.

4

Your item.value is a list so to list them as you want you will need a loop in a loop.
Check out loop_control
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_loops.html#loop-control

Or you can change you variable structure so you can do this in one loop.

5

The loop_control documentation doesn’t make really explain how I can use it in my case.

6

I posted the same question on Stackoverflow, and got the answer I was looking for. Ugly, but it works.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42167747/how-to-loop-over-this-dictionary-in-ansible

7

Or just use loop in a loop with loop control.

Task:
   - include: loop.yml
     with_dict: "{{ war_files }}"
     loop_control:
       loop_var: outer_item

And the loop.yml contain the following.

8

Thanks, I’ll try this too.

9

Hi,

I created a plugin for more complicated looping, which also covers your
problem. You can find the plugin here:
https://github.com/felixfontein/ansible-dependentloop
With it, your problem could be solved as follows:

- name: Get the files depending on server name
   get_url: src=http://some_host/{{ item.1 }}
   when: "{{ item.0 }} in ansible_hostname"
   with_dependent:
   - "war_files.keys()"
   - "war_files[item.0]"

Cheers,
Felix