# Working with with\_items and some filter **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 25, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027 "2014-08-25T08:46:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bastian_Bringenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/1 "2014-08-25T08:46:30Z")
Hey ho, I would like to deploy an application to several vhosts is item.useApplication exists. I am possible to do that, download files and so on and so on. But I get a problem as soon as I want to do an action if the application is never installed. Normally: > - stat: path=/etc/.git > > register: exists\_git > > ignore\_errors: yes > > - lineinfile: dest=/etc/rkhunter.conf line=‘ALLOWHIDDENDIR=“/etc/.git”’ owner=root group=root mode=0644 > > when: exists\_git.stat.exists But how is it possible for me to do this combined with “with\_items”? One approach, that (untested) will not work in my opinion: > - stat: path=/etc/.git > register: exists\_git\_{{ item.name }} > with\_items: hosts > when: item.useApplication > ignore\_errors: yes > > - lineinfile: dest=/etc/rkhunter.conf line=‘ALLOWHIDDENDIR=“/etc/.git”’ owner=root group=root mode=0644 > with\_items: hosts > when: item.useApplication > when: exists\_git\_{{ item.name }}.stat.exists Is someone able to help me here? Have a nice week, Greetings from Bochum, RuhrArea, Germany, Bastian PS: rkhunter is just a demonstration how I do this normally^^. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/2 "2014-08-25T14:06:28Z")
You can’t say “when:” twice, but you can feed it a list. when: - item.useApplication - other\_conditional What you are doing with building a variable name in a conditional is a little weird, and this doesn’t work. Rather, register when used with “with\_items” will return an array, which you can easily debug: - stat: path=/etc/.git register: stats with\_items: hosts when: item.useApplication - debug: var=stats Though ultimately, it looks like you should drop the lineinfile and just include your logic in a template, and it will be much cleaner and easier. ---
**Author:** ![Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bastian_Bringenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/3 "2014-08-25T14:55:45Z")
Hey ho, > You can’t say “when:” twice, but you can feed it a list. > > when: > > - item.useApplication > - other\_conditional perfect! > What you are doing with building a variable name in a conditional is a little weird, and this doesn’t work. > > Rather, register when used with “with\_items” will return an array, which you can easily debug: > > - stat: path=/etc/.git > register: stats > with\_items: hosts > when: item.useApplication > > - debug: var=stats > > Though ultimately, it looks like you should drop the lineinfile and just include your logic in a template, and it will be much cleaner and easier. I do that with templates but I want to unzip, move and copy some files to create a perfect application environment. Perhaps your return of an array will solve my problem^^. As soon as I tried this solution I will give you an answer! Thanks for the moment! ---
**Author:** ![Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bastian_Bringenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/4 "2014-08-25T18:58:39Z")
I am not able to figure out which array position is important for the current item as: hosts: - 1 - noApplication ( ID = 3 ) - 2 - Application ( ID = 2 ) - 3 - Application ( ID = 42 ) would be - 1 ( ID = 2 ) - 2 ( ID = 42 ) And I see no way to match those… Any Idea? Or is it possible without a lot of problems to create a plugin in ansible to solve this problem? ---
**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:** [August 25, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/5 "2014-08-25T22:26:21Z")
Sorry, I’m no following the above. Can we step back a moment? This appears to be a playbook that fixes various things in particular git directories, if found, for a very large number of git directories? Knowing what you are trying to do might help suggest a more idiomatic solution. ---
**Author:** ![Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bastian_Bringenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/6 "2014-08-26T06:17:47Z")
Okay =). I could write it down in some kind of PHP so you get my point. I have got: hosts: - name: “domain.tld” database: name: test user: test pw: test systemUser: domain useApplication: true This will create me /var/www/domain.tld with everything I normally need. No I add “useApplication” for example ownCloud. The steps I need to do are: - Download Zip File - Extract Zip File - Move Content of ZipFile Around ( important as owncloud.zip contains a folder named owncloud/ ) - Install a Template for the Settings - Run a Database Dummy - Remove WebDav - Restart Apache But only do that if there is no locking file. I do not want to have all of this done on each run and need some kind of if( ! file\_exists(lockfile) ) doEverything(); And all of this should of course only happen if useApplication is set to true^^. foreach($hosts as $item) { if( $item-\>useApplication ) { if( ! file\_exsists( $item-\>getLockfile() ) ) { doAllAbove(); } } } Is this more clear? ---
**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:** [August 26, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/7 "2014-08-26T12:42:54Z")
Not really. Is the issue you have a delegated host action that you only want to run once? If so you could factor this out to an action that happens last in the playbook. ---
**Author:** ![Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Bastian\_Bringenberg](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bastian_Bringenberg)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/working-with-with-items-and-some-filter/16027/8 "2014-08-26T22:14:19Z")
Not only once a run, I want to have it run only to install it^^. So if the vhost Application is already installed I don’t want to have the package to unzip anymore, move files around or run the database dummy. I am able to control this behavior without “with\_items” but as soon as I a have an array of informations to be checked for each I am not able to > Another option would be to register the stats informations into my “item” from the config array so I am able to say: - name: whatever whatever command with\_items: hosts when: item.myFile.stats.exists Easy what I need to do: