CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ansibleyaml
Snowcrash
Snowcrash

Reputation: 86167

How do you add a tag to a block in Ansible?

Ansible give this example:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_tags.html#adding-tags-to-blocks

# myrole/tasks/main.yml
tasks:
- block:
  tags: ntp

and says "use a block and define the tags at that level" but then on this page:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_blocks.html

they use:

 tasks:
   - name: Install, configure, and start Apache
     block:
       - name: Install httpd and memcached
         ansible.builtin.yum:
           name:
           - httpd
           - memcached
           state: present

If I try to "use a block and define the tags at that level", e.g. with:

 tasks:
   - name: Install, configure, and start Apache
     block:
     tag: broken
       - name: Install httpd and memcached

or (in desperation)

 tasks:
   - name: Install, configure, and start Apache
     block:
     - tag: broken
       - name: Install httpd and memcached

I get:

Syntax Error while loading YAML.
  did not find expected key

What's the problem and how do you add a tag to that second example?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 6782

Answers (1)

Vladimir Botka
Vladimir Botka

Reputation: 68074

Put tags (and any other block keyworkds) outside the block

  1. Either before the block
 tasks:

   - name: Install, configure, and start Apache
     tags: not_broken
     block:
       - name: Install httpd and Memcached
         ...
  1. , or after the end of the block
 tasks:

   - name: Install, configure, and start Apache
     block:
       - name: Install httpd and Memcached
         ...
     tags: not_broken

Note: The first option is preferred. ansible-lint will fail if tags is after the block:

key-order[task]: You can improve the task key order to: name, tags, block

The documentation says:

"All tasks in a block inherit directives applied at the block level."

This is not true for tags inside a block. The code snippet below will fail with the message: "mapping values are not allowed in this context"

- name: ntp tasks
  block:
  tags: ntp
    - name: Install ntp
      ...

The code snippet, where tags is outside the block, works as expected

- name: ntp tasks
  tags: ntp
  block:
    - name: Install ntp
      ...
  • mapping values are not allowed in this context

When you put tags inside the block, e.g.

    - name: Block
      block:
      tags: t1
        - name: Task
          debug:
            msg: Task 1

the play will fail with the error message:

ERROR! Syntax Error while loading YAML.
  mapping values are not allowed in this context
  • 'tag' is not a valid attribute for a Block

The correct keyword is tags not tag, e.g.

    - name: Block
      tag: t1
      block:
        - name: Task
          debug:
            msg: Task 1

the play will fail with the error message:

ERROR! 'tag' is not a valid attribute for a Block

Upvotes: 6

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