Double loop Ansible

Question

I have an object like that

objs:     - { key1: value1, key2: [value2, value3] }     - { key1: value4, key2: [value5, value6] } 

And I'd like to create the following files

value1/value2 value1/value3 value4/value5 value4/value6 

but I have no idea how to do a double loop using with_items

Answer 1

Take a look at with_subelements in Ansible's docs for loops.

1. You need to create directories:
2. Iterate though objs and create files:

Here is an example:

---  - hosts: localhost   gather_facts: no   vars:     objs:       - { key1: value1, key2: [ value2, value3] }       - { key1: value4, key2: [ value5, value6] }   tasks:     - name: create directories       file: path="{{ item.key1 }}"  state=directory       with_items:         objs      - name: create files       file: path="{{ item.0.key1 }}/{{ item.1 }}"  state=touch       with_subelements:         - objs         - key2 

An output is pretty self explanatory, the second loop iterates through the values the way you need it:

PLAY [localhost] **************************************************************   TASK: [create files] **********************************************************  changed: [localhost] => (item={'key2': ['value2', 'value3'], 'key1': 'value1'}) changed: [localhost] => (item={'key2': ['value5', 'value6'], 'key1': 'value4'})  TASK: [create files] **********************************************************  changed: [localhost] => (item=({'key1': 'value1'}, 'value2')) changed: [localhost] => (item=({'key1': 'value1'}, 'value3')) changed: [localhost] => (item=({'key1': 'value4'}, 'value5')) changed: [localhost] => (item=({'key1': 'value4'}, 'value6'))  PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************  localhost                  : ok=2    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0  

Answer 2

In fact you can't. Loops in Ansible are one-dimensional. There is a trick which used to work in previous versions and will again work in Ansible 2.0:

You can have one loop together with an include statement and in that included yml you have the 2nd loop. So something along these lines:

main.yml:

- include: nested_loop.yml obj={{ item }}   with_items: objs 

nested_loop.yml:

- name: create files   file: path={{obj.key1 }}/{{ item }} state=touch   with_items: obj.key2 

Again, this will not work in the current version (1.9.2) of Ansible. The feature was dropped as it caused some problems but will be supported again in Ansible 2.0, so it should be available when you use the devel branch from github.

You can install from github source with this:

git clone https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git --recursive cd ./ansible source ./hacking/env-setup sudo make install