CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jinja2ansible
stacksonstacks
stacksonstacks

Reputation: 9313

Ansible - Access tags at run time

How can I access the tags and skip-tags passed via command line to an ansible playbook at run time?

I am trying to achieve a with_items loop that can skip or include items based on tag/skip-tag using a when clause. This previous SO question touches on the same topic but takes a different approach. I would evaluate the existence of a tag per iteration.

For example:

-  name: Build docker images
    docker_image:
        name: "{{item.name}}"
        path: "{{build_folder}}/dockerfiles/{{item.name}}"
        dockerfile: "{{item.name}}.Dockerfile"
        state: build
        tag: "{{private_docker_registry}}/{{item.name}}"
    when: "{{ansible_host_vars['tags'][image1]}}" is defined
    with_items: 
        - image1
        - image2
        - image3

Upvotes: 5

Views: 6554

Answers (2)

TuanNguyen
TuanNguyen

Reputation: 1046

Since 2.5, ansible added some magic variables to access at runtime. Some of them is ansible_run_tags. It seems to be what you needed.

Ref: Ansible 2.5 change logs

Upvotes: 10

udondan
udondan

Reputation: 60029

Tags are not available at runtime. Tags define what tasks will be executed. You can use this to translate tags to facts:

- set_fact:
    image1: True
  tags: image1

- set_fact:
    image2: True
  tags: image2

- set_fact:
    image3: True
  tags: image3

Now you have facts corresponding to your tags and can use them in your condition:

...
when: hostvars[inventory_hostname][item] == True
with_items:
  - image1
  - image2
  - image3

But for me this feels wrong. This is not the purpose of tags. Tags should not define what software is installed on a host. This should be defined in your group/host vars. Tags then should simply limit the play to a subset of tasks, for example to update packages, to restart services, etc.

Beside tags you could archive the same with extra-vars. This also gives you more control. If you call your playbook without any tags provided, all tasks will be executed.

Upvotes: 2

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