# New user comments **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 16, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985 "2012-10-16T16:17:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brian\_Candler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Brian\_Candler](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Candler)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985/1 "2012-10-16T16:17:22Z")
Just done my first ansible deployment today; very impressive how easy it is to get up and running! Thank you for releasing it. I have a few bits of feedback and questions. 1. lineinfile regexp appears to be anchored, i.e. you need to do lineinfile regexp=“.\*foo” to match foo other than at start of line. I’m not sure if this is intentional, since the docs show examples like regexp=^SELINUX= (explicitly anchoring the line) My guess is this is an artefact of using Python’s re.match instead of re.search. > > > re.match(“b”,“abc”) > > > re.match(“.\*b”,“abc”) > > > \<\_sre.SRE\_Match object at 0x1005a9f38\> > > > re.search(“b”,“abc”) > > > \<\_sre.SRE\_Match object at 0x1005a9ed0\> 1. Wishlist: it would be nice to have playbook action as an array, to save having to name every single micro step: - name: install some packages action: - apt pkg=snmpd state=latest - apt pkg=snmp-mibs-downloader state=latest - … (however, the ‘with\_items’ syntax can be used in that particular case) 1. What’s the recommended way of dealing with a tree of files? The best I can come up with so far is to list them one by one with ‘with\_items’ - name: add SNMP files action: copy src=snmp-files$item dest=$item mode=644 with\_items: - /usr/share/snmp/mibs/MD-RAID-MIB.txt - /usr/share/snmp/mibs/HACKING-SNMP-MIB.txt - /usr/share/snmp/mibs/SMARTCTL-MIB.txt - /usr/lib/snmpd-connector-lib.sh - /usr/lib/hacking-bash.sh Have I missed a trick here? One solution would be a construct like with\_items which recursively iterates over a source directory, which would be simple to implement, albeit slow. A faster solution would be for the copy/template module to work recursively, check all the md5sums in one go, and upload all the changes files in one go; but I suspect that would be quite a lot more work. 1. Any suggestions for how to say “ensure this directory is empty apart from the files I just installed”? Usage case is /etc/freeradius where there’s a load of default junk installed by the package manager, which I want to remove. Of course I can just remove it entirely (state=absent) and then install the files I want, but that is an operation I would not want to run repeatedly. Thanks again, Brian. ---
**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:** [October 16, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985/2 "2012-10-16T17:59:45Z")
Replies inline. > Just done my first ansible deployment today; very impressive how easy it is > to get up and running! Thank you for releasing it. > > I have a few bits of feedback and questions. > > 1. lineinfile regexp appears to be anchored, i.e. you need to do > > lineinfile regexp=".\*foo" In 0.8, it is no longer anchored -- and that's been true for a while. It releases Friday. > 2. Wishlist: it would be nice to have playbook action as an array, to save > having to name every single micro step: > > - name: install some packages >   action: >   - apt pkg=snmpd state=latest >   - apt pkg=snmp-mibs-downloader state=latest This is not going to happen, but "name" is optional, so just don't specify the name. >   - ... > > (however, the 'with\_items' syntax can be used in that particular case) > > 3. What's the recommended way of dealing with a tree of files? The best I > can come up with so far is to list them one by one with 'with\_items' This, in 0.8 [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/examples/playbooks/loop\_plugins.yml](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/examples/playbooks/loop_plugins.yml) (or just use local\_action with rsync if you need recursion) > 4. Any suggestions for how to say "ensure this directory is empty apart from > the files I just installed"? Usage case is /etc/freeradius where there's a > load of default junk installed by the package manager, which I want to > remove. Of course I can just remove it entirely (state=absent) and then > install the files I want, but that is an operation I would not want to run > repeatedly. No method for this exists, or will exist. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Candler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Brian\_Candler](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Candler)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985/3 "2012-10-16T22:46:04Z")
Thanks for your quick reply. > In 0.8, it is no longer anchored – and that’s been true for a while. > It releases Friday. Great. (BTW I am using 0.7.2 from apt repo) > > 1. Wishlist: it would be nice to have playbook action as an array, to save > > having to name every single micro step: > > > > - name: install some packages > > action: > > - apt pkg=snmpd state=latest > > - apt pkg=snmp-mibs-downloader state=latest > > This is not going to happen, but “name” is optional, so just don’t > specify the name. I see. The example you linked seems to use another syntax as well: ```auto tasks: - file: dest=/etc/fooapp state=directory - copy: src=$item dest=/etc/fooapp/ owner=root mode=600 with_fileglob: /playbooks/files/fooapp/* ``` which is slightly briefer than - action: file dest=/etc/fooapp state=directory - action: copy src=$item dest=/etc/fooapp/ owner=root mode=600 Cheers, Brian. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Candler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Brian\_Candler](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Candler)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985/4 "2012-10-16T22:46:11Z")
Thanks for your quick reply. > In 0.8, it is no longer anchored – and that’s been true for a while. > It releases Friday. Great. (BTW I am using 0.7.2 from apt repo) > > 1. Wishlist: it would be nice to have playbook action as an array, to save > > having to name every single micro step: > > > > - name: install some packages > > action: > > - apt pkg=snmpd state=latest > > - apt pkg=snmp-mibs-downloader state=latest > > This is not going to happen, but “name” is optional, so just don’t > specify the name. I see. The example you linked seems to use another syntax as well: ```auto tasks: - file: dest=/etc/fooapp state=directory - copy: src=$item dest=/etc/fooapp/ owner=root mode=600 with_fileglob: /playbooks/files/fooapp/* ``` which is slightly briefer than - action: file dest=/etc/fooapp state=directory - action: copy src=$item dest=/etc/fooapp/ owner=root mode=600 Cheers, Brian. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-user-comments/11985/5 "2012-10-17T05:57:16Z")
This is a new shortcut syntax, which was introduced last week or so. Serge