problem with conditionals and matching a variable in dictionary list

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1

Hello,

I have a problem with when conditionals when trying to match a variable that makes part of a dictionary list.

It worked perfectly until Ansible version update till 2.3.
Since in new version there are the following warnings:

[WARNING]: when statements should not include jinja2 templating delimiters such as {{ }} or {% %}

I tried to fix the syntax, but the condition is no longer matched.

Normally it should not have worked even earlier because it must match a value in the following list:
[{u'name': u'user1'}, {u'name': u'user2'}, {u'name': u'user3'},…], so it should have returned an error message type mismatch.

For the moment I cannot find a way to match this variable at all.

Steps to reproduce:

The following play is executed with ansible-playbook play.yml -e username=user1

------------
<b>- hosts: testvm

  vars:

    system_users:
      - name : user1
      - name : user2
      - name : user3

  tasks:

  - name: Create new user
    user:
      name: "{{ username }}"
      shell: "/bin/bash"
      state: present
      groups: wheel
    when: </b>**'"{{ username }}" in "{{ system_users }}"****'**

------------

This play must create a new user only if this user is listed in system_users:

------------
<b># ansible-playbook play.yml -e username=user1

PLAY [testvm] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [testvm]

TASK [testvm] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

changed: [testvm]

PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
testvm       : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0   
</b>
------------

But when I try to change the syntax as indicated below, this task is skipped:

------------

<b>  - name: Create new user
    user:
      name: "{{ username }}"
      shell: "/bin/bash"
      state: present
      groups: wheel
    when: </b>**username in system_users**

------------

------------

<b>TASK [Create new user] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /etc/ansible/playbooks/play.yml:15
skipping: [testvm] => {
    "changed": false, 
    "skip_reason": "Conditional result was False", 
    "skipped": true
}
META: ran handlers
META: ran handlers

PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
29254.monit.sewan.fr       : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0   </b>
------------

I have tried to open an issue https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/31043 where they have advised me to rather do it in the following way:

------------
<b>- name: Create new user
    user:
      name: "{{ username }}"
      shell: "/bin/bash"
      state: present
      groups: wheel
    when: username in item.value
    with_dict: </b>**"{{ system_users }}****"**

------------

But it didn't work:

------------
__TASK [Create new user] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************__
**fatal: [testvm]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "with_dict expects a dict"}**

__PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************__
**testvm       : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1** 

------------

I guess it's beceause of the fact that it's not a dictionary but a list of dictionary.

Have somebody already faced this issue?

Regards,

Iryna
2

This should work

   when: username in system_user | map(attribute='name')

3

Thank you, it has worked perfectly!

Regards,
Iryna

4

Not sure why the loop "doesn't work" .. it should but not enough
details to debug, in any case something similar to the following
should also 'work'.

when: system_user |selectattr(attribute='name', 'equalsto', username)

5

Not sure why the loop “doesn’t work” … it should but not enough
details to debug,

It seems that it doesn’t work because it isn’t considered as a dictionary but rather as a list of dictionary.

in any case something similar to the following
should also ‘work’.

when: system_user |selectattr(attribute=‘name’, ‘equalsto’, username)

Unfortunately it doesn’t work:

TASK [Create new user] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [29254.monit.sewan.fr]: FAILED! => {“failed”: true, “msg”: “The conditional check ‘system_users |selectattr(attribute=‘name’, ‘equalto’, username)’ failed. The error was: template error while templating string: invalid syntax for function call expression. String: {% if system_users |selectattr(attribute=‘name’, ‘equalto’, username) %} True {% else %} False {% endif %}\n\nThe error appears to have been in ‘/home/ioliinykova/Ansible/playbooks/temp.yml’: line 15, column 5, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n - name: Create new user\n ^ here\n”}

But it can be related to the jinja version as indicated here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31895602/ansible-filter-a-list-by-its-attributes#comment66065595_31896249

And what I cannot understand is why it keeps working like this:

when: ‘’“{{ username }}” in “{{ system_users }}”’

It generates a warning but it works…

Regards,
Iryna Oliinykova