Ansible

Working with Strings

You can use string concatenation with multiple variables

{{ my_variable ~ '/' ~ item }}

When dealing with multi-line strings, the indent filter can help.

This indents every line of your variable with 4 spaces/tabs. If first is set to True, the first line is also indented.

private_key: |
{{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.hashi_vault', 'secret=secret/example:private_key') | indent(width=4, first=True) }}

Omitting Module Parameters

You can omit a module parameter if you do not want it to be set.

For example, notice that the hostname module allows you to set the use variable as optional. If not set the module tries to autodetect which method to use.

- name: Set a hostname
  ansible.builtin.hostname:
    name: web01
 
- name: Set a hostname specifying strategy
  ansible.builtin.hostname:
    name: web01
    use: systemd #alpine, debian, macosx, solaris, ...

You can make this more generic by setting the method via a variable. If the variable is not defined, the whole use parameter will be omitted.

- name: Set a hostname specifying strategy
  ansible.builtin.hostname:
    name: web01
    use: "{{ method }} | default(omit)"

Troubleshooting

You can use the --step flag to make troubleshooting easier. This makes Ansible wait for your confirmation before executing a step. That allows you to troubleshoot the state of the system between tasks.

$ ansible-playbook plays/myplay.yml --step
 
Perform task: TASK: example/role1 : Execute task1
(N)o/(y)es/(c)ontinue: y
 
Perform task: TASK: example/role1 : Execute task1 
(N)o/(y)es/(c)ontinue: **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************