Ton Kersten

Ansible with loops or lookup

Since Ansible version 2.5 there is a lot of discussion and confusion about the loop syntax. There is also discussion if with_...: will be replaced by loop: deprecating the with_... keywords. Even Ansibles documentation is not clear about this.

Should I use loop: or with_...:, in fact nobody really knows. What would the correct syntax be?

---
- name: Loops with with_ and lookup
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no
  vars:
    people:
      - john
      - paul
      - mary
    drinks:
      - beer
      - wine
      - whisky

  tasks:
    - name: with nested
      debug:
        msg: "with_nested: item[0] is '{{ item[0] }}' and item[1] is '{{ item[1] }}'"
      with_nested:
        - "{{ people }}"
        - "{{ drinks }}"

    - name: nested and loop
      debug:
        msg: "nested_loop: item[0] is '{{ item[0] }}' and item[1] is '{{ item[1] }}'"
      loop:
        - "{{ people }}"
        - "{{ drinks }}"

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Ansible: One Role to Rule them All

I am a long time Ansible user and contributor (since 2012) and I have been struggling with a decent setup for a multi-environment case. I have been designing and re-designing a lot, until I came up with this design. And what a coincidence, a customer wanted a setup that was exactly this. So this concept is a real world setup, working in a production environment.

Did I get your attention? Read after the break, but take your time. it is a long read.

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