Ansible 1.6 include with_items deprecated

Question

So looks like this feature has been deprecated, i really don't understand why, Ansible CTO's says that we should use instead with_nested but honestly i have no idea how to do it,

Here's my playboook:

- hosts: all
  user: root
  vars: 
   - sites:
     - site: site1.com
       repo: ssh://[email protected]/orgname/reponame
       nginx_ssl: true;
       copy_init:
        - path1/file1.txt
        - path2/file2.php
        - path2/file3.php

     - site: site2.net
       repo: ssh://[email protected]/orgname/reposite2

     - site: site4.com
       repo: ssh://[email protected]/orgname/reposite3
       copy_init:
        - path2/file2.php

  tasks:
     - name: Bootstrap Sites
      include: bootstrap_site.yml site={{item}}

And the error message when trying to execute this in Ansible 1.6.6:

ERROR: [DEPRECATED]: include + with_items is a removed deprecated feature. Please update your playbooks.

How can i convert this playbook to something that works with this ansible version?

Answer 1

There's no drop-in replacement, unfortunately. Some things you can do:

• Pass the list to your included file and iterate there. In your playbook:

  vars:
      sites:
         - site1
         - site2
  tasks:
      - include: bootstrap_site.yml sites={{sites}}
  

  And in bootstrap_site.yml:

  - some_Task: ...
    with_items: sites
  
  - another_task: ...
    with_items: sites
  
  ...
  

• Rewrite bootstrap_site as a module (in python, bash, whatever), put it in a library dir next to your playbook. Then you could do:

  - bootstrap_site: site={{item}}
    with_items: sites
  

Update: Ansible V2 is out and brings back the include + with_items combo loop!

Answer 2

I found an answer to circumvent the blahblah-deprecated message... as asked in the original post.

I added a file vars/filenames.yml:

  filenames:
  - file1
  - file2
  - file3

Next I read these names at the beginning of the playbook:

  - name: read filenames
    include_vars: vars/filenames.yml

Then, I can use them later:

  - name: Copy files 1
    copy: src=/filesrc1/{{ item }} dest=/filedest1/{{ item }} owner=me group=we
    with_items: filenames

and so on....

Regards, Tom