Ansible set empty dictionary ok: [localhost] => { "food": {} } Here is Depending on what you need, it can be set to omit, an integer (including 0), a string (including ‘’), a list written in JSON format (including an empty one []), a dict written in JSON A Subreddit dedicated to fostering communication in the Ansible Community, includes Ansible, AWX, Ansible Tower, Ansible Galaxy, ansible-lint, Molecule, etc. There are two main data structures in Ansible: list and dictionary. After all the tasks are done, I run over this dictionary As for the heart of the question, I would set up your variables like so: users: - username: bar directories: - path: /data permissions: rX - path: /js permissions: rX - username: foo directories: - path: / permissions: rwX ansible empty dictionary conditional. Understanding Ansible Variables and Facts. Ce module fait partie du ansible-core et est inclus dans toutes les installations du Ansible . fruits_dict: '{% set tmp_dict = {} %}{% for f in fruits %}{% set dummy = tmp_dict. 9. Follow asked Nov 3, 2015 at 22:13. This custom format, like in @Zoredache I want to check if a property is set on a given flavor, and only update it if it does not already have the requested value. In many cases, you will need to perform complex operations with your variables. Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow! Please be sure to answer the question. To select a single element or a data subset from a complex data structure in JSON format (for example, Ansible facts), use the community. Improve this question. List Initialization of a list - name: Initialize an empty list set_fact: list: [] Result is: {"list": []} Append element to a list - name: Append element to list set_fact: list: "{{ list + [ 'element_1' ] }}" Result is: {"list": ["element_1"]} Append multiple Loops . path – a string type with a filesystem path. I verified - also thanks to the guys who contributed - that what I am trying to achieve is in fact not possible. As we have already seen how Ansible map filter can be used to select or filter an element using numeric index values. type_debug, ansible. stdout_lines is the YAML list. ansible empty dictionary conditional. Empty directories ansible. Since set_fact is a module like any other, you can use a with_items loop to loop over an existing list, and pull out a value from that list to add to another list. This article covers analyzing and using the data in lists and dictionaries, can it be set to a dictionary in a similar way? Tried: my_var: "{{ '{key1: value1, key2: value2 } So the best you can do is set the value of the variable to an empty value or doesn't set the variable at all. Ansible: set fact variable is getting overwritten while iterating set_fact task has ansible_facts dictionary in its result (this way Ansible knows that it need to add new facts). If you want to add custom values to your facts, you can write a custom facts module, set temporary facts with a ansible. There’s another small also, do not set recurse to yes, since it is not only unnecessary, but may increase execution time. --- - hosts: localhost vars: food: {} tasks: - debug: var: food Which should return the following. 10 distro: Ubuntu purpose: database. Working with language-specific version managers . Ansible condition on dictionary item. html - hosts: localhost tasks: - name: create a tag dictionary of non-empty tags set_fact: tags_dict: "{{ (tags_dict|default({}) How do I denote an empty dictionary in YAML? I. So, we need to know how to write lists and dictionaries in YAML. dict_kv filter to create a single-entry dictionary with value | community. arg – The executable to find. Check if key exists in a dict in Jinja2 template on ansible. There are several useful tests that you can make using Jinja2 builtin tests and filers. bool for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same The set_fact module in Ansible is a vital tool used in playbooks to define or alter the value of variables during playbook execution. This filter plugin is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In Ansible parlance facts are variables too. ' + item | string] }}" loop: "{{ range(1 A Subreddit dedicated to fostering communication in the Ansible Community, includes Ansible, AWX, Ansible Tower, Ansible Galaxy, ansible-lint, Molecule, etc. json_query filter. Input: foo: key1: used key2: "" key3: another_used output: foo: key1: used key3: another_used Normally when trying to add a new item to the variable, while in the loop, or between tasks, Ansible will ovewrite the values, keeping the result of the last iteration. I resorted to looping over the original dictionary and calling the include with just one definition. The more standard Python method is to use a Boolean evaluation on the dictionary. Further readings. Some language-specific version managers (such as rbenv and nvm) require you to set environment variables while these tools are in use. Transform JSON to Formatted List: In case you need to set your variable by priority order, likewise: Set variable as var_priority_1. 0. After all, they are all part of YAML, which administrators use to create Ansible playbooks. So the trick here is: “{{ APPLICATIONNAME }}” is not set. Parameters:. Using a Note. Ansible: Convert Some behavioral parameters that you can set in variables you can also set in Ansible configuration, as command-line options, and using playbook keywords. Or use "json_query" filter. 1. d directory. Normaly this is a variable in vars/app1. I also have a list that contains well-known checksum. Clearing the In addition, Ansible uses lists and dictionaries to exchange data within processes and with third parties. But the option I chose seems simpler to me if you have only one level of nesting. Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 12:14. json_query filter lets you query a complex JSON structure and iterate over it using a loop structure. It seems that it is re-creating a new dictionary or may be overriding an existing dictionary for every item in the with_items. We then use the type_debug filter in combination with the in and not in operators to check the type of See more How to create empty dictionary if user ommit sysctl settings in his playbook? Such expression {{ sysctl_default | combine(sysctl | default({})) | dictsort }} doesn't working: You can use the community. For [bootstrapping my servers](({ ref “2021-04-what-are-tags-in-ansible-and-how-to-use-them” })) I have a playbook which expects to pass a parameter hcloud_server_labels which should assign certain labels to the server. opt_dirs – optional list of directories to search in addition to PATH You used the variable in a playbook, maybe that works. Its syntax is as follows: <list of dictionaries> | selectattr('<attribute>', '<operator>', '<value>') Get Your Free Linux training! Join our free Linux training fortios_system_interface – Configure interfaces in Fortinet’s FortiOS and FortiGate - Automating Fortinet Interface Management with Ansible: The fortinos_system_interface Module It allows you to create, modify, or delete interfaces, as well as configure various interface settings. random_page_cost not set from configfile Truncated date/time when converting GPX to Shapefile with gdal. yml" name: dict Note. here I am telling Ansible to set a variable named sudoGroup to sudo if the platform When I execute following code it is shows a dictionary with only one key that corresponds to the last item of the with_items. Type of data structures Since Ansible is based on Python. How to read and print Ansible set_fact array in unix shell script. As you might know, Ansible has a special directive called set_fact to create facts. fail: msg: "Foo is not set" when: foo is undefined or foo == None or foo | length == 0 - name: Show var ansible. debug: var: foo There is As the title suggest i want to loop over an existing dictionary and change some values, based on the answer to this question i came up with the code below but it doesn't work as the values are unchanged in the second debug call, I'm thinking it is because in the other question they are creating a new dictionary from scratch, but I've also tried it without the outer curly Hi, I’m writing a playbook with the aim to search for IOC accross all managed hosts. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name subelements. But it's a workaround in code, not an alternative to the original problem. yaml; Share. This expects a key-value pair i. it should be semantically equivalent to the empty json-object {}. Each item in the list is a list of key/value pairs, commonly called a “hash” or a “dictionary”. This module provides a way to manage network interfaces on Fortinet devices A: The value of command_results. Creating a function to return every dictionary with given values A: Just by Using variable name which was defined during set_fact. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name flatten. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name combine. If I understand your question correctly, you want to find the abbreviation of an animal given its FullName, taken from a list of Animals. In this article, i’ll show how to test if a variable exists or not, if In that list, there are empty strings as some of the keys don't have values assigned to them. From time to time, I need to dynamically build a list of strings (or a list of other things) using Ansible's set_fact module. Reload to refresh your session. In Ansible, how do I setup dictionaries with lists? 0. . 29k 9 9 gold badges 25 Using Extract filter in Ansible Map - with Dictionary/Hashtable. I also tried with foo=None and it prints an empty string. - name: port {{ item }} allowed in firewall ufw: rule: allow No, there is no way to unset a variable (top level) in Ansible. general. Cependant, nous vous recommandons d'utiliser le FQCN pour faciliter la création de liens vers la documentation du module et pour éviter tout conflit avec ansible_facts. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name dict. I am using Ansible version 2. flatten for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers; Advertising & Talent Reach devs & technologists worldwide about your product, service or employer brand; OverflowAI GenAI features for Teams; OverflowAPI Train & fine-tune LLMs; Labs The future of collective knowledge sharing; About the company This said, as pointed by @Zeitounator, a better idea would possibly be to treat all cases the same and always enclose your result in a list. Accesing debug values in Ansible. However for 'frank' I want the primary group to be an existing one; gid 1003. What Exactly is an Ansible Dictionary? Ansible dictionaries provide a way to store related data together in key-value pairs, much like Python dictionaries. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name unique. In real-world scenarios, this data may come from an API or file. Use the ansible. Ansible modules normally return a data structure that can be registered into a variable, or seen directly when output by the ansible program. You can also use the data type itself to ` Hello Team i am trying to set facts from a json array, since the key contains space i am unable to parse, can someone help me here, i want to set fact as `“name”: “IN-FG-04” when ```“vdom”: “vdom-shop”`` ` name: What am I doing wrong? It looks like that "{{ item. So below I will show an example of a list and then compare it to a dictionary. d or local facts These examples show proxy settings, but you can provide any number of settings this way. 1. fruit: f}) %}{% endfor %}{{ tmp_dict }}' In such a case you'll get the empty element [""] as a part of the list. You can do it like this: - name: create new list for tunnel set_fact: list_tunnel: "{{ list_tunnel | default([]) + ['tunnel. I've cleaned it up with: list: "{{ list Ansible set_fact dictionary with nested list. Ansible: How to check if dictionary has at least one specified value? 1. Note. That is how you can unset variables in Ansible. keys() Share ansible empty dictionary conditional. In 2. Here we assign an empty dictionary to the newly initiated variable. 10. Question Is it possible to determine whether a dictionary is empty? Answer Yes, there are several ways to check if a dictionary is empty. stdout instead - set_fact: needrestart: "{{ command_results. combine for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may So lets review what we did. the path to the mount point as a text type. Ansible offers the loop, with_<lookup>, and until keywords to execute a task multiple times. This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In Ansible, you can use the type_debug filter to check if a variable is a dictionary. Ansible check if key/value pair exists in list of dictionaries. Betamos Betamos. Find system executable in PATH. So, for each flavor (for each property (get property value, test it against requested value, and possibly set it )). Ansible build list dictionary with from list of strings. For example: server: ip: 10. Here’s an example: In this example, we define two variables var1 and var2, where var1 is a dictionary and var2 is a string. war - file3. It's better to test the length instead of the implicit boolean. Here, server is the dictionary name. facts. Each module can optionally document its own unique return values (visible through ansible-doc and on the main docsite). 0. I did initialize an empty list, but I did it as a set_fact rather than selectattr in Ansible selectattr is a filter plugin in Ansible that allows you to select a subset of elements from a list of dictionaries based on the value of a particular attribute. Nothing happens to the list when you filter it from_yaml. Ansible : Create dict from file. Ansible and dictionary keys with variables. Ansible version: 2. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. In this article, i’ll show the examples of how to test a variable in Ansible: if it For example, a registered variable might contain a dictionary when your next task needs a list, or a user prompt might return a string when your playbook needs a boolean value. ansible; Share. You switched accounts on another tab or window. If you want to run another task only on hosts where the stdout of your registered variable is empty, check the registered variable’s string contents for emptiness: Set a variable ansible. Particularity this helps to avoid different “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED” errors in Ansible playbooks. Dictionaries are data structures that Hi all, trying the following playbook taken from user_guide/playbooks_loops. If you are new to facts and variables read this article In Ansible playbooks, it is often a good practice to test if a variable exists and what is its value. I have a playbook that may or may not have key-value pairs in an object (k8s resource When you're working with Ansible, it's inevitable that you'll deal with lists and dictionaries. ; Core Concept Dictionary lookup is a fundamental technique in Ansible to extract specific values from dictionaries. For example, you can define the user Ansible uses to connect to remote devices as a variable with ansible_user , in a configuration file with DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER , as a command-line option with -u , and Note. When using these tools manually, you usually source some environment variables from a I have a dictionary which is loaded by the following play: - name: Get variables from . Members Online Change value of each item in a list of dicts Using set_fact to create an Ansible list. For example, you can define variables like: A sample JSON string is defined using set_fact. We created the servers_list fact, we set the default value to be a blank list and then for each of the servers in pool_servers separated by , we loop adding the dict {'ip': {'addr': item, 'type': 'V4'}, 'enabled': 'true'} to the servers_list. I want a single dictionary with all the keys. dict for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same lookup Note. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible. 2025-03-16. This lookup plugin is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. While Ansible is not recommended as a data processing/manipulation tool, you can use the existing Jinja2 templating in conjunction with the many added Ansible filters, lookups and tests to perform some very complex transformations. How can set the variable to null through inventory or extra-vars? This may be useful when I want to unset a variable already defined in a playbook. Related. yml Ansible check if dictionary exists. This article covers analyzing and using the data in lists and dictionaries, Let's say you create an empty dictionary using vars. In most cases, you can use the short module name set_fact even without specifying the collections keyword. In Jinja2 templates, it is often a good practice to test if a variable exists and what value does it carry. Provide details and share your research! But avoid . You might have seen Gathering facts while starting the playing and this is the same fact we are talking about. This will indeed create a list of list when packages. I updated the answer with the current status. 14. Checking if the attribute is included in the set of attributes of the hash also works: vars: key: "name_of_key" when: - key not in hash_variable. A variable set to null is defined but empty. Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 12:35. What is Dictionary Lookup in Ansible? How it Works You use the dictionary's key within the lookup to retrieve the corresponding value. The community. set_facts with dict as argument of a loop. I Use default([]) to create an empty list if firewall_allowed_ports is undefined. yml Here is the full code: /vars/app1. Use command_results. get_bin_path (arg, required = False, opt_dirs = None). I’ve got a dict that contains several file as key (like /home/user/foo) with a checksum as value. Dans la plupart des cas, vous pouvez utiliser le nom de module court set_fact même sans spécifier le mot-clé collections:. This can be applied to any kind of situation where you need to create a list of complicated objects. general By default foo is defined but empty so it can be tested even if the user doesn't set it, that way no related tasks are done local vars: foo: tasks: - name: Ensure foo is set ansible. warnings. According to Ansible documentation, setting the variable with the --extra-vars or -e flag takes precedence in setting the variable. You signed in with another tab or window. register and with_ loop gives a complex dictionary, which always has results list inside where each task iteration result is stored. This still may be cumbersome sometime, especially the extra vars you choose may change. You can do that by testing just the dictionary variable or using the bool() The setup module in Ansible automatically discovers a standard set of facts about each host. war - file2. set_fact: x: foo # no condition applied to this task, Ansible sets the value of x to Hint. entry is a list already, but that case can be handled by flattening the list of list with then flatten filter added to Jinja by Ansible. dict2items, and ansible. Selecting JSON data: JSON queries . a dictionary. For example, today I needed to retrieve a list of all the AWS EC2 security groups in a This page provides a basic overview of correct YAML syntax, which is how Ansible playbooks (our configuration management language) are expressed. 9 and the rise of collections, I think it would be useful to answer it again here. set_fact for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting If the list is empty nothing will happen. e. I need to create a dictionary in the form of key:value pair. I want 'lucy' to follow the user module creators' default behaviour which is to create and use a group matching the user name 'lucy'. Complementing the helpful answers, that loop over a set_fact task to generate the new dictionnary, I want to show you a possibility to achieve the same inline without a separate task by using a Jinja2 loop:. The only thing you can do, is to create a dictionary and store the variable as a key in this dictionary. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name bool. How to check whether variable is defined, when dictionary may be missing in ansible/j2. Manipulating data . exception. Add a comment | Check if variable is in a list within a dictionary in Ansible. /main. Then, we go through that list with file module. Let us see an example of how it can be I wanted to create a dictionary consisting of a single entry based on a dictionary with multiple app configurations – and the name of the app was stored in a variable. Variables allow you to customize your playbooks and roles. stdout | from_yaml }}" Details: Given the below file for testing Note. You signed out in another tab or window. An empty dictionary (or other containers) will evaluate to a Boolean False. unique for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same . The with_items will skip it when empty. But if it is not defined, then: Set variable as var_priority_2. Ansible: build a If you have a full dictionary that could just override the dict with null, like: - name: Set dict set_fact: dict: rabbitmq_version: 1 other_version: 2 - name: override dict to null set_fact: dict: Something like other_var: just is "other_var": null in JSON. Accessing Ansible Dictionary. AristaSwitch01 - AristaSwitch02 - AristaSwitch03 tasks: - name: Add Cisco devices to the dictionary Note. Parse JSON to Dictionary: The from_json filter converts the JSON string into a Python dictionary for further processing. war_files: server1: - file1. VectorTranslate in Python Dissect the figure into two congruent parts. Examples of commonly-used loops include changing ownership on several files and/or directories with the file module, creating multiple users with the user module, and repeating a polling step until a certain result is reached. Have a nice day. required – if the executable is not found and required is True, fail_json. But I want to make sure that the role is not being executed when someone forgets to set the variable. As Ansible Quotes in their documentation besides the built-in Ansible filters, all JINJA2 filters can be used in Say I have this dictionary. builtin. items2dict filters to manage data types. – DustWolf. Returns:. Code: The string content of a registered variable can be empty. In addition, Ansible uses lists and dictionaries to exchange data within processes and with third parties. So, you end up with: Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers; Advertising & Talent Reach devs & technologists worldwide about your product, service or employer brand; OverflowAI GenAI features for Teams; OverflowAPI Train & fine-tune LLMs; Labs The future of collective knowledge sharing; About the company Ansible selectattr filter is to select matching objects from the dictionary by applying a test across all the objects in a dictionary/sequence. 6, the evaluation of an empty string as a boolean works fine but the evaluation of a non-empty string depends on ANSIBLE_CONDITIONAL_BARE_VARS. Before diving into set_fact, let‘s recap how Ansible handles variables and facts. Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. or you could set default values of empty dicts for each level of vars, maybe using "combine" filter. Let’s first define a more elaborate set of variables using dictionaries. update({f. But if it is not defined either, then: Set variable to a default value. The best way I can think of doing it is using json_query from the community. With set_fact, you can create new variables on the fly based on the output of This questions has been partly answered here but since Ansible 2. This comprehensive guide will lift the lid on Ansible set_fact to help you use it like a pro. shell: | # Match dotfiles shopt -s dotglob # Make a temporary (empty) directory tmpdir=$( mktemp -d ) # Rsync the temporary directory to the destination rsync Note. Ansible selectattr filter is basically an inherited version of Jinja selectattr filter. I wanted to throw this together as I have not found a decent example of doing this. I would like to parse the dict and compare values with the list, when one value matches, add the Note. Even the single act of defining it, and leaving it as empty, just triggers the condition, and it is not possible to override it. yml and save them into dict include_vars: file: ". 21. Summary basically, `{} | dict2items' fails as it has nothing to iterate over -- dict2items requires a dictionary, got <class 'NoneType'> instead. So, what I am trying to achieve is to . subelements for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that Parameters:. set_fact task, or provide permanent custom facts using the facts. Adding to the already given answers I would like to show you a different way to define a list with set_fact using the regular YAML syntax instead of the custom format which Ansible core folks like to use in their docs. deprecations. dict_kv(key): This produces: ok: [localhost] => { "msg": { Creating a Dictionary in Ansible using the default function; How to Append or Add items into Ansible Dictionary; How to create List of Dictionaries my_id is a global variable and authorised is an empty dictionary (authorised: {} ) is there a way to add a conditional to skip the tasks when authorised is an empty dictionary. This dynamic nature of set_fact allows for greater flexibility and adaptability in managing configurations and automating tasks. dict2items for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that The use case I had in hand that I had a playbook with huge number of tasks. 9. war and for now I just want to loop over each item (key), and then over each item in the key (value). Ansible documentation Lookup plugins; How to generate single reusable random password with Ansible; Ansible: Generate random passwords automatically for users; Creating user passwords from an Ansible Playbook; How do I create a user and set a password using (Related to Callbacks or hooks, and reusable series of tasks, in Ansible roles): Is there any better way to append to a list or add a key to a dictionary in Ansible than (ab)using a jina2 template Let’s say you want to remove from your dictionary (object) all elements with value of empty string. The dict have been filled by a previous task. war server2: - file1. – mhalano. Ansible Dictionary Lookup: Best Practices and Common Pitfalls . In most cases, you can use the short plugin name dict2items. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up. expiry_date }}" will output the empty string that I have, which is improper syntax, which makes sense to me, but how do I update the expiry_date key in the item dict? UPDATE Set the Set expiry date to be something new, and tried to update dict with combine: This post is to go through an example of defining Ansible variables as dictionaries rather than lists. Using Ansible set_fact to create a dictionary from register results. In this context there are several useful tests that you can apply using Jinja2 filters in Ansible. slz rwxtdhp unyspqh voiut wwvubfuin whasciup gzjl dbnfns thl fctwlle wjx jrclyw iop jns qdg