Item exists in list of dicts?

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1

Hi,

I’ve been restructuring my variables and ended up with something along the lines of:

files:

  • { src: ‘a’ }
  • { src: ‘b’ }

and a role that does:

  • name: x
    template:
    src: {{ item.src }}
    …
    mode: {{ item.mode|default(0755) }}
    owner: {{ item.owner|default(root) }}

This allows me to easily override the ownership/mode on a single file, yet have defaults for them if not specified, it also makes a step like this easily exchangeable with other roles (assuming you use the same variable structure there).
Anyway, what’s problematic with such a layout is to determine whether a given file exists in a list of other files (for example for the sake of removing unmanaged files), think:

(Please bear in mind that I’m typing this from memory, so if I mixed up the syntax of a module, no need to point that out, just trying to illustrate my use-case)

  • name: collect files…
    shell: blah
    register: found_files

  • name: remove unmanaged
    file:
    path: {{ item }}
    state: absent
    with_items:

  • found_files
    when: item not in files

This is where it goes wrong, as files no longer is a flat list, but a list containing a dictionary; is there an easy way to say “when: item not in files.[*].src”? Or do I have to start using with_nested in this case (results in quite some overhead!!).

Thanks,
Nico

2

In case anyone cares, the way to do this is:

  • name: x
    set_fact:
    src_from_list: “{{ files|map(attribute=‘src’)|list }}”

  • name: y
    debug: msg=‘{{ item }}’
    with_items:

  • “{{ src_from_list }}”

which then outputs the values of ‘src’ (that being ‘a’, and ‘b’)

Thanks,
Nico