Loops ===== Often you'll want to do many things in one task, such as create a lot of users, install a lot of packages, or repeat a polling step until a certain result is reached. This chapter is all about how to use loops in playbooks. .. contents:: Topics .. _standard_loops: Standard Loops `````````````` To save some typing, repeated tasks can be written in short-hand like so:: - name: add several users user: name={{ item }} state=present groups=wheel with_items: - testuser1 - testuser2 If you have defined a YAML list in a variables file, or the 'vars' section, you can also do:: with_items: "{{somelist}}" The above would be the equivalent of:: - name: add user testuser1 user: name=testuser1 state=present groups=wheel - name: add user testuser2 user: name=testuser2 state=present groups=wheel The yum and apt modules use with_items to execute fewer package manager transactions. Note that the types of items you iterate over with 'with_items' do not have to be simple lists of strings. If you have a list of hashes, you can reference subkeys using things like:: - name: add several users user: name={{ item.name }} state=present groups={{ item.groups }} with_items: - { name: 'testuser1', groups: 'wheel' } - { name: 'testuser2', groups: 'root' } Also be aware that when combining `when` with `with_items` (or any other loop statement), the `when` statement is processed separately for each item. See :ref:`the_when_statement` for an example. .. _nested_loops: Nested Loops ```````````` Loops can be nested as well:: - name: give users access to multiple databases mysql_user: name={{ item[0] }} priv={{ item[1] }}.*:ALL append_privs=yes password=foo with_nested: - [ 'alice', 'bob' ] - [ 'clientdb', 'employeedb', 'providerdb' ] As with the case of 'with_items' above, you can use previously defined variables.:: - name: here, 'users' contains the above list of employees mysql_user: name={{ item[0] }} priv={{ item[1] }}.*:ALL append_privs=yes password=foo with_nested: - "{{users}}" - [ 'clientdb', 'employeedb', 'providerdb' ] .. _looping_over_hashes: Looping over Hashes ``````````````````` .. versionadded:: 1.5 Suppose you have the following variable:: --- users: alice: name: Alice Appleworth telephone: 123-456-7890 bob: name: Bob Bananarama telephone: 987-654-3210 And you want to print every user's name and phone number. You can loop through the elements of a hash using ``with_dict`` like this:: tasks: - name: Print phone records debug: msg="User {{ item.key }} is {{ item.value.name }} ({{ item.value.telephone }})" with_dict: "{{users}}" .. _looping_over_fileglobs: Looping over Files `````````````````` ``with_file`` iterates over the content of a list of files, `item` will be set to the content of each file in sequence. It can be used like this:: --- - hosts: all tasks: # emit a debug message containing the content of each file. - debug: msg: "{{item}}" with_file: - first_example_file - second_example_file Assuming that ``first_example_file`` contained the text "hello" and ``second_example_file`` contained the text "world", this would result in:: TASK [debug msg={{item}}] ****************************************************** ok: [localhost] => (item=hello) => { "item": "hello", "msg": "hello" } ok: [localhost] => (item=world) => { "item": "world", "msg": "world" } Looping over Fileglobs `````````````````````` ``with_fileglob`` matches all files in a single directory, non-recursively, that match a pattern. It can be used like this:: --- - hosts: all tasks: # first ensure our target directory exists - file: dest=/etc/fooapp state=directory # copy each file over that matches the given pattern - copy: src={{ item }} dest=/etc/fooapp/ owner=root mode=600 with_fileglob: - /playbooks/files/fooapp/* .. note:: When using a relative path with ``with_fileglob`` in a role, Ansible resolves the path relative to the `roles/<rolename>/files` directory. Looping over Parallel Sets of Data `````````````````````````````````` .. note:: This is an uncommon thing to want to do, but we're documenting it for completeness. You probably won't be reaching for this one often. Suppose you have the following variable data was loaded in via somewhere:: --- alpha: [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ] numbers: [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ] And you want the set of '(a, 1)' and '(b, 2)' and so on. Use 'with_together' to get this:: tasks: - debug: msg="{{ item.0 }} and {{ item.1 }}" with_together: - "{{alpha}}" - "{{numbers}}" Looping over Subelements ```````````````````````` Suppose you want to do something like loop over a list of users, creating them, and allowing them to login by a certain set of SSH keys. How might that be accomplished? Let's assume you had the following defined and loaded in via "vars_files" or maybe a "group_vars/all" file:: --- users: - name: alice authorized: - /tmp/alice/onekey.pub - /tmp/alice/twokey.pub mysql: password: mysql-password hosts: - "%" - "127.0.0.1" - "::1" - "localhost" privs: - "*.*:SELECT" - "DB1.*:ALL" - name: bob authorized: - /tmp/bob/id_rsa.pub mysql: password: other-mysql-password hosts: - "db1" privs: - "*.*:SELECT" - "DB2.*:ALL" It might happen like so:: - user: name={{ item.name }} state=present generate_ssh_key=yes with_items: "{{users}}" - authorized_key: "user={{ item.0.name }} key='{{ lookup('file', item.1) }}'" with_subelements: - "{{ users }}" - authorized Given the mysql hosts and privs subkey lists, you can also iterate over a list in a nested subkey:: - name: Setup MySQL users mysql_user: name={{ item.0.name }} password={{ item.0.mysql.password }} host={{ item.1 }} priv={{ item.0.mysql.privs | join('/') }} with_subelements: - "{{ users }}" - mysql.hosts Subelements walks a list of hashes (aka dictionaries) and then traverses a list with a given (nested sub-)key inside of those records. Optionally, you can add a third element to the subelements list, that holds a dictionary of flags. Currently you can add the 'skip_missing' flag. If set to True, the lookup plugin will skip the lists items that do not contain the given subkey. Without this flag, or if that flag is set to False, the plugin will yield an error and complain about the missing subkey. The authorized_key pattern is exactly where it comes up most. .. _looping_over_integer_sequences: Looping over Integer Sequences `````````````````````````````` ``with_sequence`` generates a sequence of items in ascending numerical order. You can specify a start, end, and an optional step value. Arguments should be specified in key=value pairs. If supplied, the 'format' is a printf style string. Numerical values can be specified in decimal, hexadecimal (0x3f8) or octal (0600). Negative numbers are not supported. This works as follows:: --- - hosts: all tasks: # create groups - group: name=evens state=present - group: name=odds state=present # create some test users - user: name={{ item }} state=present groups=evens with_sequence: start=0 end=32 format=testuser%02x # create a series of directories with even numbers for some reason - file: dest=/var/stuff/{{ item }} state=directory with_sequence: start=4 end=16 stride=2 # a simpler way to use the sequence plugin # create 4 groups - group: name=group{{ item }} state=present with_sequence: count=4 .. _random_choice: Random Choices `````````````` The 'random_choice' feature can be used to pick something at random. While it's not a load balancer (there are modules for those), it can somewhat be used as a poor man's loadbalancer in a MacGyver like situation:: - debug: msg={{ item }} with_random_choice: - "go through the door" - "drink from the goblet" - "press the red button" - "do nothing" One of the provided strings will be selected at random. At a more basic level, they can be used to add chaos and excitement to otherwise predictable automation environments. .. _do_until_loops: Do-Until Loops `````````````` .. versionadded: 1.4 Sometimes you would want to retry a task until a certain condition is met. Here's an example:: - action: shell /usr/bin/foo register: result until: result.stdout.find("all systems go") != -1 retries: 5 delay: 10 The above example run the shell module recursively till the module's result has "all systems go" in its stdout or the task has been retried for 5 times with a delay of 10 seconds. The default value for "retries" is 3 and "delay" is 5. The task returns the results returned by the last task run. The results of individual retries can be viewed by -vv option. The registered variable will also have a new key "attempts" which will have the number of the retries for the task. .. _with_first_found: Finding First Matched Files ``````````````````````````` .. note:: This is an uncommon thing to want to do, but we're documenting it for completeness. You probably won't be reaching for this one often. This isn't exactly a loop, but it's close. What if you want to use a reference to a file based on the first file found that matches a given criteria, and some of the filenames are determined by variable names? Yes, you can do that as follows:: - name: INTERFACES | Create Ansible header for /etc/network/interfaces template: src={{ item }} dest=/etc/foo.conf with_first_found: - "{{ansible_virtualization_type}}_foo.conf" - "default_foo.conf" This tool also has a long form version that allows for configurable search paths. Here's an example:: - name: some configuration template template: src={{ item }} dest=/etc/file.cfg mode=0444 owner=root group=root with_first_found: - files: - "{{inventory_hostname}}/etc/file.cfg" paths: - ../../../templates.overwrites - ../../../templates - files: - etc/file.cfg paths: - templates .. _looping_over_the_results_of_a_program_execution: Iterating Over The Results of a Program Execution ````````````````````````````````````````````````` .. note:: This is an uncommon thing to want to do, but we're documenting it for completeness. You probably won't be reaching for this one often. Sometimes you might want to execute a program, and based on the output of that program, loop over the results of that line by line. Ansible provides a neat way to do that, though you should remember, this is always executed on the control machine, not the local machine:: - name: Example of looping over a command result shell: /usr/bin/frobnicate {{ item }} with_lines: /usr/bin/frobnications_per_host --param {{ inventory_hostname }} Ok, that was a bit arbitrary. In fact, if you're doing something that is inventory related you might just want to write a dynamic inventory source instead (see :doc:`intro_dynamic_inventory`), but this can be occasionally useful in quick-and-dirty implementations. Should you ever need to execute a command remotely, you would not use the above method. Instead do this:: - name: Example of looping over a REMOTE command result shell: /usr/bin/something register: command_result - name: Do something with each result shell: /usr/bin/something_else --param {{ item }} with_items: "{{command_result.stdout_lines}}" .. _indexed_lists: Looping Over A List With An Index ````````````````````````````````` .. note:: This is an uncommon thing to want to do, but we're documenting it for completeness. You probably won't be reaching for this one often. .. versionadded: 1.3 If you want to loop over an array and also get the numeric index of where you are in the array as you go, you can also do that. It's uncommonly used:: - name: indexed loop demo debug: msg="at array position {{ item.0 }} there is a value {{ item.1 }}" with_indexed_items: "{{some_list}}" .. _using_ini_with_a_loop: Using ini file with a loop `````````````````````````` .. versionadded: 2.0 The ini plugin can use regexp to retrieve a set of keys. As a consequence, we can loop over this set. Here is the ini file we'll use:: [section1] value1=section1/value1 value2=section1/value2 [section2] value1=section2/value1 value2=section2/value2 Here is an example of using ``with_ini``:: - debug: msg="{{item}}" with_ini: value[1-2] section=section1 file=lookup.ini re=true And here is the returned value:: { "changed": false, "msg": "All items completed", "results": [ { "invocation": { "module_args": "msg=\"section1/value1\"", "module_name": "debug" }, "item": "section1/value1", "msg": "section1/value1", "verbose_always": true }, { "invocation": { "module_args": "msg=\"section1/value2\"", "module_name": "debug" }, "item": "section1/value2", "msg": "section1/value2", "verbose_always": true } ] } .. _flattening_a_list: Flattening A List ````````````````` .. note:: This is an uncommon thing to want to do, but we're documenting it for completeness. You probably won't be reaching for this one often. In rare instances you might have several lists of lists, and you just want to iterate over every item in all of those lists. Assume a really crazy hypothetical datastructure:: ---- # file: roles/foo/vars/main.yml packages_base: - [ 'foo-package', 'bar-package' ] packages_apps: - [ ['one-package', 'two-package' ]] - [ ['red-package'], ['blue-package']] As you can see the formatting of packages in these lists is all over the place. How can we install all of the packages in both lists?:: - name: flattened loop demo yum: name={{ item }} state=installed with_flattened: - "{{packages_base}}" - "{{packages_apps}}" That's how! .. _using_register_with_a_loop: Using register with a loop `````````````````````````` When using ``register`` with a loop the data structure placed in the variable during a loop, will contain a ``results`` attribute, that is a list of all responses from the module. Here is an example of using ``register`` with ``with_items``:: - shell: echo "{{ item }}" with_items: - one - two register: echo This differs from the data structure returned when using ``register`` without a loop:: { "changed": true, "msg": "All items completed", "results": [ { "changed": true, "cmd": "echo \"one\" ", "delta": "0:00:00.003110", "end": "2013-12-19 12:00:05.187153", "invocation": { "module_args": "echo \"one\"", "module_name": "shell" }, "item": "one", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-12-19 12:00:05.184043", "stderr": "", "stdout": "one" }, { "changed": true, "cmd": "echo \"two\" ", "delta": "0:00:00.002920", "end": "2013-12-19 12:00:05.245502", "invocation": { "module_args": "echo \"two\"", "module_name": "shell" }, "item": "two", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-12-19 12:00:05.242582", "stderr": "", "stdout": "two" } ] } Subsequent loops over the registered variable to inspect the results may look like:: - name: Fail if return code is not 0 fail: msg: "The command ({{ item.cmd }}) did not have a 0 return code" when: item.rc != 0 with_items: "{{echo.results}}" .. _looping_over_the_inventory: Looping over the inventory `````````````````````````` If you wish to loop over the inventory, or just a subset of it, there is multiple ways. One can use a regular ``with_items`` with the ``play_hosts`` or ``groups`` variables, like this:: # show all the hosts in the inventory - debug: msg={{ item }} with_items: "{{groups['all']}}" # show all the hosts in the current play - debug: msg={{ item }} with_items: play_hosts There is also a specific lookup plugin ``inventory_hostname`` that can be used like this:: # show all the hosts in the inventory - debug: msg={{ item }} with_inventory_hostnames: all # show all the hosts matching the pattern, ie all but the group www - debug: msg={{ item }} with_inventory_hostnames: all:!www More information on the patterns can be found on :doc:`intro_patterns` .. _loops_and_includes: Loops and Includes `````````````````` In 2.0 you are able to use `with_` loops and task includes (but not playbook includes), this adds the ability to loop over the set of tasks in one shot. There are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind, an included task that has its own `with_` loop will overwrite the value of the special `item` variable. So if you want access to both the include's `item` and the current task's `item` you should use `set_fact` to create an alias to the outer one.:: - include: test.yml with_items: - 1 - 2 - 3 in test.yml:: - set_fact: outer_loop="{{item}}" - debug: msg="outer item={{outer_loop}} inner item={{item}}" with_items: - a - b - c .. _writing_your_own_iterators: Writing Your Own Iterators `````````````````````````` While you ordinarily shouldn't have to, should you wish to write your own ways to loop over arbitrary datastructures, you can read :doc:`developing_plugins` for some starter information. Each of the above features are implemented as plugins in ansible, so there are many implementations to reference. .. seealso:: :doc:`playbooks` An introduction to playbooks :doc:`playbooks_roles` Playbook organization by roles :doc:`playbooks_best_practices` Best practices in playbooks :doc:`playbooks_conditionals` Conditional statements in playbooks :doc:`playbooks_variables` All about variables `User Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_ Have a question? Stop by the google group! `irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_ #ansible IRC chat channel