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Alexandr
Alexandr

Reputation: 9505

How to define unnamed list of items externally

Here is a structure of variables I'd like to work with from packages.yml file:

---
- name: Some description 1,
  package: package1

- name: Some description 1,
  package: package2

My expectation was, that I import the file and store the list in the packages variable:

- name: Import packages vars
  include_vars:
    file: packages.yml
    name: packages

Then I want to print names only:

- name: iteration
  debug:
    msg: "name: {{ item.name }}"
  with_items: "{{ packages }}"

But get error:

TASK [Import packages vars] **************************************************** fatal: [default]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {"packages": {}}, "ansible_included_var_files": [], "changed": false, "message": "/vagrant/packages.yml must be stored as a dictionary/hash"}

The original purposes I try to get:

1st. Simplify properties definition, by declaring a list of items without a name of this list. I mean, I do not want to define them in external file as:

---
- packages:
    - name: Some description 1,
      package: package1

    - name: Some description 1,
      package: package1

Although this can be solved easily without include_vars, but via vars_files directive:

  vars_files:
    - packages.yml

2nd. Having an unnamed list of items in yml file, I want in the playbook itself give it a name. That's what I try to do in the "Import packages vars" task via "packages" in the playbook

- name: Import packages vars
  include_vars:
    file: packages.yml
    name: packages

By this way, I move a responsibility of naming a list, to its consumer. List itself should not worry about how it is named by its clients.

If it is possible, how can I get it done?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1073

Answers (1)

Calum Halpin
Calum Halpin

Reputation: 2105

As the error message says, the contents of packages.yml must be a dictionary or hash, not a list at the top level.

You could assign the list to a placeholder variable within the file and then assign that value to another variable within your playbook using the set_fact module.

packages.yml:

list:
  - name: Some description 1,
    package: package1

  - name: Some description 1,
    package: package2

Playbook:

- include_vars:
    file: packages.yml
    name: included_vars

- set_fact:
    packages: "{{ include_vars.list }}"

Although, given that the file is named packages.yml, packages would make sense as a top level variable name.

Upvotes: 0

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