How to pass variables to included tasks in ansible?

Question

I have an ansible file (my_file.yml) that looks something like this:

--- - name: The name   hosts: all   tasks:      - include:my_tasks.yml       vars:           my_var: "{{ my_var }}" 

my_tasks.yml looks like this:

- name: Install Curl   apt: pkg=curl state=installed  - name: My task   command: bash -c "curl -sSL http://x.com/file-{{ my_var }} > /tmp/file.deb" 

I'd like to pass my_var as a command-line argument to ansible so I do like this:

ansible-playbook my_file.yml --extra-vars "my_var=1.2.3" 

But I end up with the following error:

... Failed to template {{ my_var }}: Failed to template {{ my_var }}: recursive loop detected in template string: {{ my_var }} 

If I the vars in my_file.yml to look like this:

- include:my_tasks.yml   vars:       my_var: "1.2.3" 

it works! I've also tried changing the variable name to something that is not equal to my_var, for example:

- include:my_tasks.yml   vars:       my_var: "{{ my_var0 }}" 

but then I end up with an error. It seems to me that the variable is not expanded and instead the string "{{ my_var }}" or {{ my_var0 }} is passed to my_tasks.yml. How do I solve this?

Answer 1

Faced the same issue in my project. It turns out that the variable name in the playbook and the task have to be different.

--- - name: The name   hosts: all   vars:     my_var_play: "I need to send this value to the task"     some_other_var: "This is directly accessible in task"   tasks:     - include:my_tasks.yml       vars:           my_var: "{{ my_var_play }}" 

Also on a sidenote, all the variables in the playbook is accessible in the task. Just use {{ some_other_var }} in task and it should work fine.

Answer 2

You shouldn't need to explicitly pass my_var to the include. All variables including extra-vars should be directly available everywhere. So simply calling

ansible-playbook my_file.yml --extra-vars "my_var=1.2.3" 

and using it as {{ my_var }} in the tasks should work.

- name: My task   command: bash -c "curl -sSL http://x.com/file-{{ my_var }} > /tmp/file.deb"