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Ansible : use a fact variable with a dictionary variable – Debian

I would like to install Apache on several linux server. Apache package has not the same name on RedHat or Debian operating system (apache2 vs httpd): Is it a way to use an ansible fact variable ("ansible_os_family") as a key of a dictionary variable ?

Something like that (but this doesn’t work) :

---
- name: playbook1
  hosts: all
  become: yes
  vars:
    apache_packages: {
      "RedHat": "httpd",
      "Debian": "apache2"
      }
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache server
      package:
        name:  "{{ apache_packages['{{ ansible_os_family }}']  }}"
        state: present
...
Tags:

3

Answers


  1. 0

    Nesting Jinja delimiters inside another Jinja delimiter is never a good idea.

    Another rule is ‘moustaches don’t stack’. We often see this:

    {{ somevar_{{other_var}} }}

    The above DOES NOT WORK as you expect, if
    you need to use a dynamic variable use the following as appropriate:

    {{ hostvars[inventory_hostname]['somevar_' + other_var] }}

    For ‘non host vars’ you can use the vars lookup plugin:

    {{ lookup('vars', 'somevar_' + other_var) }}

    Source: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/faq.html#when-should-i-use-also-how-to-interpolate-variables-or-dynamic-variable-names

    If you don’t surround something with quotes, it will be assumed as being a variable, so in this case, this is as simple as:

    name:  "{{ apache_packages[ansible_os_family] }}"
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  2. 0

    try this: you define packages as a dict of list (based on os family)

    - name: playbook1
  hosts: localhost
  become: yes
  vars:
    packages:
      debian:
        - apache2
      redhat:
        - httpd
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache server
      package:
        name:  "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      loop: "{{ packages.get(ansible_os_family|lower) }}"
    Login or Signup to reply.
  3. 0

    I would do some thing like below to reduce the lines

    - hosts: localhost
  become: yes 
  tasks:
  - package:
      name: "{{ 'apache2' if ansible_os_family == 'Debian' else ('httpd' if ansible_os_family == 'RedHat') }}"
      state: present
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