Using with_file with subkeys

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1

Hi all,

this will probably sound very basic but I tried my best to find a solution, without success. This is what I’m trying to achieve:

  • name: sample task
    lineinfile:

path: /etc/hosts
state: present
owner: root
group: root
mode: 0644
regexp: “{{ item.regexp }}”
line: “{{ item.line }}”
with_file:

  • “{{ sample_file }}”

And the contents of sample_file:

  • { regexp: ‘abc’, line: ‘abc’ }

  • { regexp: ‘xyz’, line: ‘xyz’ }

This is pretty much how the with_file documentation illustrates the use, with the exception that it doesn’t make reference to the use of subkeys like {{ item.regexp }}, but instead only single values (e.g. {{ item }}). During run, ansible will complain that regexp isn’t defined:

the field ‘args’ has an invalid value, which appears to include a variable that is undefined. The error was: ‘ansible.vars.unsafe_proxy.AnsibleUnsafeText object’ has no attribute ‘regexp’

Is there a way to achieve I’m trying to do? Is with_file the right method for this?

Thanks a lot for your help.

2

Hi all,

this will probably sound very basic but I tried my best to find a solution,
without success. This is what I'm trying to achieve:

- name: sample task
   lineinfile:
     path: /etc/hosts
     state: present
     owner: root
     group: root
     mode: 0644
     regexp: "{{ item.regexp }}"
     line: "{{ item.line }}"
   with_file:
     - "{{ sample_file }}"

And the contents of sample_file:
- { regexp: 'abc', line: 'abc' }
- { regexp: 'xyz', line: 'xyz' }

This is pretty much how the with_file documentation illustrates the use,
with the exception that it doesn't make reference to the use of subkeys
like {{ item.regexp }}, but instead only single values (e.g. {{ item }}).
During run, ansible will complain that regexp isn't defined:

*the field 'args' has an invalid value, which appears to include a variable
that is undefined. The error was:
'ansible.vars.unsafe_proxy.AnsibleUnsafeText object' has no attribute
'regexp'*

The with_file read one and one line and the lines is a string.
Since they are just stings one can't do item.regexp.

Is there a way to achieve I'm trying to do? Is with_file the right method
for this?

Probably, but without context it's hard to give a solution.

You can put the content in the file in a variable instead and use that, or make it a variable in a file and use include_vars to read the file.