# Unable to read variable in a loop using include\_vars. **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [March 3, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371 "2020-03-03T04:43:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shifa\_Shaikh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Shifa\_Shaikh](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Shifa_Shaikh)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/1 "2020-03-03T04:43:45Z")
Below is my playbook which loads variables and passes it to ls command on remote hosts. ` - name: Load repository include\_vars: file=“{{ playbook\_dir }}/vars/listing.yml” name=user1 - set\_fact: allinonecmd: “{{ allinonecmd | default(‘’) + 'ls -ltr ’ + item.path + ’ '}}” loop: “{{ user1[inventory\_hostname] }}” - name: Get stat shell: “ssh {{ USER }}@{{ inventory\_hostname }} ‘{{ allinonecmd }}’ \>/web/htdocs/{{ item.ccode }}{{ item.ipseg }}.html” delegate\_to: localhost loop: “{{ user1[inventory\_hostname] }}” ` below is my listing.yml ` 10.0.0.15: - name: SCRIPT path: /tmp/scripts ccode: GRM-APP- ipseg: “0.15” - name: MOC path: /tmp/moc - name: EXE path: /tmp/exe - name: MTR path: /tmp/mtr ` This worked fine without ccode and ipseg entries in the listing.yml. I have multiple entries for path which i loop over and construct the allinonecmd string but the ccode is just needed once. I get this error with a single entry of ccode in listing.yml `fatal: [10.0.0.15]: FAILED! => { "msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'dict object' has no attribute 'ccode'` For my existing playbook to work i have to specify ccode and ipseg under each entry like below which works but looks ugly. It should be specified just one time and the playbook should work. ` 10.0.0.15: - name: SCRIPT path: /tmp/scripts ccode: GRM-APP- ipseg: “0.15” - name: MOC path: /tmp/moc ccode: GRM-APP- ipseg: “0.15” - name: EXE path: /tmp/exe ccode: GRM-APP- ipseg: “0.15” - name: MTR path: /tmp/mtr ccode: GRM-APP- ipseg: “0.15” ` Can you please suggest a clean way to get this to work ? ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 7:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/2 "2020-03-03T07:55:57Z")
Can you tell what is the big picture? What task is this intended for? ---
**Author:** ![Shifa\_Shaikh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Shifa\_Shaikh](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Shifa_Shaikh)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 8:19am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/3 "2020-03-03T08:19:52Z")
Under an ip I want a variable ccode which will be global variable for that ip. I also want variable name & path which will have multiple entries. How can I read both single global and multiple variables name and path under a given IP ? ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/4 "2020-03-03T09:25:08Z")
I meant HIGH level. You are using ansible to achieve something - what is that? ---
**Author:** ![Shifa\_Shaikh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Shifa\_Shaikh](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Shifa_Shaikh)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/5 "2020-03-03T09:53:30Z")
I need to get the output of ls command from list of remote ips and under each ip there is are different directories. The output of ls command needs to be saved in a file and the name of the file should be the value of ccode variable under the variable. Thus my variable file has ip listed. Under each ip is the list of directories with name and path variables and finally the entire output of all the ls commands on all the directories for that ip is stored in a file with ccode variable. Hope the requirement is clear now. ---
**Author:** ![racke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/racke/32/4767_2.png) [@racke](https://forum.ansible.com/u/racke)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 9:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/6 "2020-03-03T09:58:30Z")
> I need to get the output of ls command from list of remote ips and under each ip there is are different directories. The > output of ls command needs to be saved in a file and the name of the file should be the value of ccode variable under > the variable. > > Thus my variable file has ip listed. Under each ip is the list of directories with name and path variables and finally > the entire output of all the ls commands on all the directories for that ip is stored in a file with ccode variable. > > Hope the requirement is clear now. It is still unclear what you are going to do with the ls output. Also I would recommend to use the find module instead of ls on the target. Regards            Racke ---
**Author:** ![Shifa\_Shaikh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Shifa\_Shaikh](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Shifa_Shaikh)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 10:11am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-read-variable-in-a-loop-using-include-vars/32371/7 "2020-03-03T10:11:18Z")
The reason for grabbing the ls output across servers is for audit purpose. The output of ls is send as reports and audit team uses the ls output reports to do random checks on the server.