Ansible playbook to handle both Linux and Windows hosts

Question

Trying to write one playbook that checks whether a set of files exist on a set of servers (both Linux and Windows hosts), and if they do, then to replace the files.

Here is what i have so far:

---
- hosts: "{{hosts}}"
  vars:
    scripts:
      - check_blackout.pl
      - check_empty.pl
  tasks:
    - name: windows stat
      with_items: "{{scripts}}"
      win_stat: path=D:\scripts\{{item}}
      register: windows_stat
      when: "'windows' in group_names"
    - name: other stat
      with_items: "{{scripts}}"
      stat: path=/usr/local/bin/{{item}}
      register: other_stat
      remote_user: "{{script_owner | default(ansible_user)}}"
      when: "'windows' not in group_names"
    - name: windows debug
      with_items: "{{windows_stat.results}}"
      debug: var={{item.item}}
      when: "{{item.stat.exists}}"
    - name: other debug
      with_items: "{{other_stat.results}}"
      debug: var={{item.item}}
      when: "{{item.stat.exists}}"
...

When I run this against a Windows and Linux host for testing, I get the following:

[ansible@vmhklftpscdv1 ~]$ ansible-playbook test.yml -e "hosts=vmhkge1jasdev01,jdeesbkup" --ask-vault-pass
Vault password: 

PLAY [vmhkge1jasdev01,jdeesbkup] ************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01]
ok: [jdeesbkup]

TASK [windows stat] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_blackout.pl) 
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_empty.pl) 
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_blackout.pl)
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_empty.pl)

TASK [other stat] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_empty.pl) 
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_blackout.pl) 
ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_blackout.pl)
ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_empty.pl)

TASK [windows debug] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'check_empty.pl', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'win_stat'}}) 
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'check_blackout.pl', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'win_stat'}}) 
fatal: [jdeesbkup]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "The conditional check '{{item.stat.exists}}' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional ({{item.stat.exists}}): 'dict object' has no attribute 'stat'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/home/ansible/test.yml': line 19, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n      when: \"'windows' not in group_names\"\n    - name: windows debug\n      ^ here\n"}

TASK [other debug] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [vmhkge1jasdev01]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "The conditional check '{{item.stat.exists}}' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional ({{item.stat.exists}}): 'dict object' has no attribute 'stat'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/home/ansible/test.yml': line 23, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n      when: \"{{item.stat.exists}}\"\n    - name: other debug\n      ^ here\n"}
        to retry, use: --limit @/home/ansible/test.retry

PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
jdeesbkup                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1   
vmhkge1jasdev01            : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1   

[ansible@vmhklftpscdv1 ~]$ 

Any ideas how I can get this working?
I've tried various combinations including checking the group membership before checking the results:

  when: "'windows' in group_names and {{item.stat.exists}}"

However Ansible still seems to check the item.stat field even when the first part of the condition is false.

Or is my fundamental approach wrong, should I be splitting these tasks up into different playbooks?

Answer 1

Yes, you are right. with_items is evaluated before when. You can add a default empty list to avoid the error:

- name: other debug
  with_items: "{{other_stat.results | default([]) }}"
  debug: var={{item}}
  when: "{{item.stat.exists | default(false)}}"