# Why does 'when' conditional test fail without jinja2 templating delimiters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [May 26, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/why-does-when-conditional-test-fail-without-jinja2-templating-delimiters/27638 "2018-05-26T16:24:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Darren\_S](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Darren_S)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/why-does-when-conditional-test-fail-without-jinja2-templating-delimiters/27638/1 "2018-05-26T16:24:30Z")
ansible 2.5.3 on OpenBSD 6.3 amd64   config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg   configured module search path = [u'/home/dspruell/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']   ansible python module location = /home/dspruell/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible   executable location = /home/dspruell/.local/bin/ansible   python version = 2.7.14 (default, Mar 27 2018, 09:57:43) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible OpenBSD Clang 5.0.1 (tags/RELEASE\_501/final)] Test playbook: the 'when' conditions on the sysctl tasks are how I figured were proper to format the tests and avoid using jinja2 templating (and avoid subsequent warning from doing so): ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/why-does-when-conditional-test-fail-without-jinja2-templating-delimiters/27638/2 "2018-05-26T18:26:51Z")
> Test playbook: the 'when' conditions on the sysctl tasks are how I > figured were proper to format the tests and avoid using jinja2 > templating (and avoid subsequent warning from doing so): > > --- > - hosts: molodetz >   become: yes >   vars: >     sysctl\_limit\_semmns: kern.seminfo.semmns >     sysctl\_limit\_semmni: kern.seminfo.semmni >     postgres\_limit\_semmni: 60 >     postgres\_limit\_semmns: 1024 > >   tasks: >     - name: check sysv semaphore system limits >       command: sysctl -n {{ sysctl\_limit\_semmni |quote }} {{ > sysctl\_limit\_semmns |quote }} >       register: sem\_limits >       changed\_when: False > >     - set\_fact: >         semmni\_cur\_limit: '{{ sem\_limits.stdout\_lines[0]|int }}' >         semmns\_cur\_limit: '{{ sem\_limits.stdout\_lines[1]|int }}' >       changed\_when: False > >     - debug: >         var: '{{ item }}' >       loop: >         - semmni\_cur\_limit >         - semmns\_cur\_limit >         - postgres\_limit\_semmni >         - postgres\_limit\_semmns >         - 'postgres\_limit\_semmni \> {{ semmni\_cur\_limit }}' >         - 'postgres\_limit\_semmns \> {{ semmns\_cur\_limit }}' >         - 'postgres\_limit\_semmni \> 100000' >         - 'postgres\_limit\_semmns \> 100000' > >     - name: set sysv max semaphore identifier system limit >       sysctl: >         name: '{{ sysctl\_limit\_semmni }}' >         value: '{{ postgres\_limit\_semmni }}' >         sysctl\_set: yes >       when: postgres\_limit\_semmni \> semmni\_cur\_limit > >     - name: set sysv max semaphore count system limit >       sysctl: >         name: '{{ sysctl\_limit\_semmns }}' >         value: '{{ postgres\_limit\_semmns }}' >         sysctl\_set: yes >       when: postgres\_limit\_semmns \> semmns\_cur\_limit > > This playbook results in the tasks being skipped because of evaluating > to false. The debug task shows the tests evaluating to true when using > jinja2 templating on the compared variable. The semmni\_cur\_limit and semmns\_cur\_limit is strings and you need to cast/filter then through int each time you use them. This is how Ansible/Jinga combo works at the time. > Here's how the second test playbook is modified to use templating > delimiters in the conditional: > > $ diff -u test\*.yml > --- test.yml Sat May 26 08:47:09 2018 > +++ test2.yml Sat May 26 08:46:47 2018 > @@ -35,12 +35,12 @@ >          name: '{{ sysctl\_limit\_semmni }}' >          value: '{{ postgres\_limit\_semmni }}' >          sysctl\_set: yes > - when: postgres\_limit\_semmni \> semmni\_cur\_limit > + when: postgres\_limit\_semmni \> {{ semmni\_cur\_limit }} > >      - name: set sysv max semaphore count system limit >        sysctl: >          name: '{{ sysctl\_limit\_semmns }}' >          value: '{{ postgres\_limit\_semmns }}' >          sysctl\_set: yes > - when: postgres\_limit\_semmns \> semmns\_cur\_limit > + when: postgres\_limit\_semmns \> {{ semmns\_cur\_limit }} This is not supported in Jinja you can't use {{ }} inside {{ }}. > With jinja2 templating delimiters the comparison evaluates to true and > executes the tasks, but results in the warning. Is there a different > way to structure the conditional properly?    when: postgres\_limit\_semmns \> semmns\_cur\_limit | int > Also would like to understand why do these set\_facts still result in > the values being strings instead of integers? > > - set\_fact: >     semmni\_cur\_limit: '{{ sem\_limits.stdout\_lines[0]|int }}' >     semmns\_cur\_limit: '{{ sem\_limits.stdout\_lines[1]|int }}' That is just how Jinja work. In Jinja 2.10 some new feature is added to support native type, support in Ansible is probably coming in 2.7. [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/32738](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/32738) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Darren\_S](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Darren_S)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 7:34am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/why-does-when-conditional-test-fail-without-jinja2-templating-delimiters/27638/3 "2018-05-27T07:34:40Z")
This is enlightening and helped make adjustments. Thanks!