# List in File command ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 3, 2012, 9:32am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641 "2012-07-03T09:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ansibleguest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ansibleguest](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ansibleguest)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 9:32am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641/1 "2012-07-03T09:32:00Z")
To use a list in the file command is not possible ? I tried this:   vars:     user: root     group: root     basedir: /opt/basedir     createdirectories: ["$basedir/test1","$basedir/test2"]    #createdirectories: [{$basedir/test1}, {$basedir/test2}]    #createdirectories: [$basedir/test1, $basedir/test2]   tasks:      - action: file path=$item state=directory owner=$user group= $group        with\_items:         - $createdirectories Expansion seams correct: "createdirectories": ["$basedir/test1", "$basedir/test2"], and got an error like this: fatal: [10.101.1.102] =\> failed to parse: Traceback (most recent call last): line 138, in \ (k, v) = x.split("=") ---
**Author:** ![CWS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e495f1/32.png) [@CWS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/CWS)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 10:03am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641/2 "2012-07-03T10:03:47Z")
Use with\_items, [http://ansible.github.com/playbooks2.html#loop-shorthand](http://ansible.github.com/playbooks2.html#loop-shorthand) ---
**Author:** ![ansibleguest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ansibleguest](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ansibleguest)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641/3 "2012-07-03T11:33:55Z")
Thank you, yes that works of course and that is how it is today. But i would like to put all these into a variable which comes from an external .yml-file. This will make the playbook more generic and reusable when the uncommon config is stored externally... ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641/4 "2012-07-03T12:30:20Z")
ansibleguest wrote: > Thank you, yes that works of course and that is how it is today. > > But i would like to put all these into a variable which comes from an > external .yml-file. > This will make the playbook more generic and reusable when the > uncommon config is stored externally... with\_items and vars\_files are not friends right now. It's something I've been looking at fixing, but I don't think it'll make 0.5. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/list-in-file-command/11641/5 "2012-07-03T12:48:47Z")
Yeah, it seems possible to evaluate vars\_files earlier, for vars\_files that do not contain host specific variables. For vars\_files that DO contain variables though, with\_items can't be friends because task expansion has to happen before variable expansion -- every host in a playbook gets the same number of tasks (which also keeps counts from getting confusing) It may be possible to move the looping over with\_items to be an entirely runner thing, in which case that abstraction no longer makes multiple tasks, but is ONE task, with an array of returns or something.