# with\_items/iterations over dictionary for a sysctl task. **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 18, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594 "2014-02-18T20:55:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Walid](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Walid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/1 "2014-02-18T20:55:01Z")
Hi, I have defined under group\_vars, something like the following : ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/2 "2014-02-19T01:29:25Z")
The pattern for iterating over a hash is the same regardless of module and would look like: vars: my\_pairs: - key: foo value: bar - key: foo2 value: bar2 tasks: - shell: echo “{{ item.key }} and {{ item.value }}” with\_items: my\_pairs So, generally applicable to sysctl or anything else. You could also define the list right under “with\_items” without the intermediate variable. ---
**Author:** ![Walid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Walid](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Walid)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/3 "2014-02-19T05:54:56Z")
Hi Michael, but in this case the key name is not a static, they key is the sysctl parameter, would it be possible to use a similar construct to the one in the template? my vars for this use case and also some others are 6-10+ items, each item could be defined easily as follow vars: pana\_sys\_ctl: net.ipv4.ip\_local\_port\_range: 32768 610 net.ipv4.tcp\_fin\_timeout: 30 net.ipv4.tcp\_keepalive\_time: 1800 … pana\_mounts: mnt1: red: filer001:/disk1/vol1 blue:filer002:/disk1/vol3 … ---
**Author:** ![benno\_joy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@benno\_joy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/benno_joy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/4 "2014-02-19T07:42:10Z")
Hi Walid, Can you try : - sysctl: name={{ item[0] }} value= {{ item[1] }} with\_items: pana\_sys\_ctl|dictsort Regards, Benno ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/5 "2014-02-19T13:00:33Z")
The dictsort just sorts them and doesn’t really change much. It sounds like you have a list of sysctl names and each sysctl name has a lot of settings under it. You could consider flattening everything to one list, and also maybe using the “when” operator to filter which to apply. If you had a hash of lists and wanted to apply the sysctls in multiple hashes, that might require a filter plugin. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/6 "2014-02-19T13:01:32Z")
Sorry, I meant “lookup” plugin. I mean if you had something like: my\_sysctls: one: - { key: x, value: y } - { key: x2, value: y2 } two: … and wanted to apply all sysctls in one or two. I would probably just keep seperate lists and iterate over them, and keep those configurations with the roles that need them instead. ---
**Author:** ![Walid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea5d25/32.png) [@Walid](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Walid)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/7 "2014-02-24T19:49:14Z")
Hi Michael, and Benno, Sorry for not replying early, i had a bad flu. at the end i choose to go with dictionary the way Michael described, and not the array/list, as dictionaries are more clear in the playbook tasks. e.g item.key vs item.0 I am currently using Ansible 1.4.5 and i hit a problem with dictionaries if i format the with\_items differently see below what worked for me and what did not work ### does not work , complains about ""undefined variables: ‘str object’ has no attribute ‘name’ “” > - debug: var= {{ [item.name](http://item.name) }} with\_items: > - my\_pairs #### works fine - debug: var= {{ [item.name](http://item.name) }} with\_items: > - " {{ my\_pairs }}" ##### or this also works fine - debug: var= {{ [item.name](http://item.name) }} with\_items: my\_pairs Is that a YAML convention issue, or an ansible parsing bug ? kind regards Walid ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-iterations-over-dictionary-for-a-sysctl-task/14594/8 "2014-02-24T20:00:49Z")
with\_items: