Apply with_items on multiple tasks

Question

Is it possible to apply a list of items to multiple tasks in an Ansible playbook? To give an example:

- name: download and execute   hosts: server1   tasks:   - get_url: url="some-url/{{item}}" dest="/tmp/{{item}}"     with_items:     - "file1.sh"     - "file2.sh"   - shell: /tmp/{{item}} >> somelog.txt     with_items:     - "file1.sh"     - "file2.sh" 

Is there some syntax to avoid the repetition of the item-list?

Answer 1

As of today you can use with_items with include, so you'd need to split your playbook into two files:

- name: download and execute   hosts: server1   tasks:   - include: subtasks.yml file={{item}}     with_items:     - "file1.sh"     - "file2.sh" 

and subtasks.yml:

- get_url: url="some-url/{{file}}" dest="/tmp/{{file}}" - shell: /tmp/{{file}} >> somelog.txt 

There was a request to make with_items applicable to block, but the Ansible team has said it will never be supported.

Answer 2

You have the possibility to define a yaml list in a variables file:

--- myfiles: - "file1.sh" - "file2.sh" ... 

and then you can use

with_items: "{{ myfiles }}" 

in the task.