CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ansible
lonix
lonix

Reputation: 20579

Split ansible role's tasks into multiple files

This is my ansible role:

/roles
  /foo
    /tasks
      main.yml             <----- I want to split this

The main.yml file is really big, so I want to split it into multiple files, and call them in sequence.

/roles
  /foo
    /tasks
      run-this-first.yml            <--- 1st
      run-this-last.yml             <--- last
      run-this-second.yml           <--- 2nd

How do I invoke those files, and how do I ensure they are run in order?

Upvotes: 24

Views: 15984

Answers (2)

j-i-l
j-i-l

Reputation: 10957

You essentially have 2 ways (two builtin modules to be precise) to achieve this. Displayed for both approaches is how your tasks/main.yml file might look like:

  • include_tasks module

    ---
- name: First tasks
  ansible.builtin.include_tasks:
    file: run-this-first.yml
- name: second tasks
  ansible.builtin.include_tasks:
    file: run-this-second.yml
- name: Last tasks
  ansible.builtin.include_tasks:
    file: run-this-last.yml

  • import_tasks module

    ---
- name: First tasks
  ansible.builtin.import_tasks:
    file: run-this-first.yml
- name: second tasks
  ansible.builtin.import_tasks:
    file: run-this-second.yml
- name: Last tasks
  ansible.builtin.import_tasks:
    file: run-this-last.yml

Note that, according to the ansible documentation about Roles the import_tasks module is the suggested way to go.

The difference in the above examples is really just include_tasks/import_tasks. However, which module you use will affect how the tasks are imported as the include_tasks imports tasks in a dynamic manner, while import_tasks imports them in a static way.

A comparison of the two approaches can be found here in the official guide about re-using artifacts and you can read more about when you might want to use which module here in this same guide.

Upvotes: 11

Arbab Nazar
Arbab Nazar

Reputation: 23781

You can do it with include_tasks:

/roles
  /foo
    /tasks
      main.yml
      run-this-first.yml            <--- 1st
      run-this-last.yml             <--- last
      run-this-second.yml           <--- 2nd

As you can notice that there is also main.yml inside the tasks directory and your main.yml simply contains this:

---
- include_tasks: run-this-first.yml
- include_tasks: run-this-second.yml
- include_tasks: run-this-last.yml

Upvotes: 36

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