Ad-Hoc Works; Playbook Works. Wait... No it doesn't.

[Chris Short]

This ad-hoc command works for me:

ansible -s -m copy -a "src=roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/ddclient.conf dest=/etc/ddclient.conf owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes" daffy

However when I run the playbook containing the same command (with sudo: true specified) it does not copy the file into place (no modification to the file at all) but the play says it runs successfully!

cshort-mba:ansible oaf357$ ansible-playbook pi_ddclient.yml -s

sudo password:

PLAY [daffy] ******************************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************

ok: [daffy]

TASK: [common | apt-get update] ***********************************************

ok: [daffy]

TASK: [common | Installing commonly installed files] **************************

ok: [daffy] => (item=curl,host,mercurial,ntpdate,vim)

TASK: [common | Make Vim Default Editor] **************************************

changed: [daffy]

TASK: [pi_ddclient | Install ddclient] ****************************************

ok: [daffy] => (item=ddclient)

TASK: [pi_ddclient | Copy /etc/ddclient.conf and /etc/defaults/ddclient to server] ***

ok: [daffy]

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************

daffy                      : ok=6    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0

Here's the pi_ddclient.yml file:

---

- hosts: daffy

  roles:

    - common

    - pi_ddclient

  sudo: true

Here's the roles/pi_ddclient/tasks/main.yml file:

---

# Do all the ddclient things

- name: Install ddclient

  apt: name={{ item }} state=latest

  with_items:

    - ddclient

- name: Copy /etc/ddclient.conf and /etc/defaults/ddclient to server

  copy: src=roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/ddclient.conf dest=/etc/ddclient.conf owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes

  copy: src=roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/default/ddclient dest=/etc/default/ddclient owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes

  notify: restart ddclient

I should point out roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/default/ddclient copies over just fine.

How can I debug successes in Ansible? Any thoughts on what is going wrong here?

Thank you in advance.

[Greg Andrews]

I believe the primary issue is that your pi_ddclient role's task file specifies the same path to the source file as your ad-hoc command.  Your ad-hoc command doesn't know what roles are, so it needs the path to the source file to start with "roles/pi_ddclient/files/".  However the role already knows the path to its files start that way.

Telling the role to find the file "roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/ddclient.conf" will make it look for the file "roles/pi_ddclient/files/roles/pi_ddclient/files/etc/ddclient.conf", which probably doesn't exist.

In your pd_ddclient role's tasks/main.yml file, try these "copy:" lines:

  copy: src=etc/ddclient.conf dest=/etc/ddclient.conf owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes
 copy: src=etc/default/ddclient dest=/etc/default/ddclient owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes

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[Chris Short]

It seems like you can't have multiple copy/template operations under one name. I'm not sure if this is a YAML standard or an Ansible issue. I made these files into templates and split the template operations out under two names. Now it works. A little annoying but I did realize this was a limitation when dealing with some apache configs. Here is the tasks/main.yml file now:

---

- name: Install ddclient

  apt: name={{ item }} state=latest

  with_items:

    - ddclient

- name: Copy ddclient configurations to server

  template:

    src=~/ansible/roles/pi_ddclient/templates/ddclient.conf.j2

    dest=/etc/ddclient.conf owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes

- name: Copy /etc/default/ddclient to server

  template:

    src=~/ansible/roles/pi_ddclient/templates/ddclient.j2

    dest=/etc/default/ddclient owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes

  notify: restart ddclient

Works fine now. Thanks for the help!

[Dan Vaida]

FWIW, the template module already knows where to look for the template files: templates/

Same concept is true for other modules like copy which looks for the files in the files/ folder.

Now, if you are willing to sacrifice the name of the task and make it a little bit more broad, you could use the template module with with_items like so:

---

- name: Install ddclient

  apt: name={{ item }} state=latest

  with_items:

    - ddclient

- name: Copy ddclient configurations to server

  template: src={{ item.src }}.j2 dest={{ item.dest }} owner=root group=root mode=0600 backup=yes
  with_items:
      - { src: 'ddclient.conf', dest: '/etc/ddclient.conf' }
      - { src: 'ddclient'        , dest: '/etc/default/ddclient' }

  notify: restart ddclient

Having thins in a role possibly called 'ddclient', you would simply call it from a playbook sitting next to the 'roles' folder.

Best,

Dan.