bool and string evaluation gives mixed result if using curly brackets

[jepper]

The snippet below evaluates to true, then false with myvar=false. How come? ansible version 2.2.1.0 on OSX High Sierra

---

- name: do stuff without curlies

  become: no

  hosts: all

  tasks:

    - name: echo

      shell: echo x

      when: something == 'yes' and myvar

- name: do stuff with curlies

  become: no

  hosts: all

  tasks:

    - name: echo

      shell: echo x

      when: "{{ something == 'yes' and myvar }}"

$ ansible-playbook play.yml -c local -i 127.0.0.1, -e myvar=false -e something="yes"

PLAY [do stuff without curlies] ************************************************

TASK [echo] ********************************************************************

Thursday 07 December 2017  10:15:48 +0000 (0:00:00.080)       0:00:00.080 *****

changed: [127.0.0.1]

PLAY [do stuff with curlies] ***************************************************

TASK [echo] ********************************************************************

Thursday 07 December 2017  10:15:49 +0000 (0:00:00.470)       0:00:00.551 *****

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

127.0.0.1                  : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 07.12.2017 11:18, jepper wrote:
> The snippet below evaluates to true, then false with myvar=false. How
> come?
> ansible version 2.2.1.0 on OSX High Sierra
>
> ---
> - name: do stuff without curlies
> become: no
> hosts: all
> tasks:
> - name: echo
> shell: echo x
> when: something == 'yes' and myvar
>
> - name: do stuff with curlies
> become: no
> hosts: all
> tasks:
> - name: echo
> shell: echo x
> when: "{{ something == 'yes' and myvar }}"

You can't use double curly brackets in when, in when you are in template
mode already so the double curly brackets is implied.


--
Kai Stian Olstad

[jepper]

The problem is that when: "{{ something == 'yes' and myvar }}" yields the desired result e.g.:

ansible-playbook play.yml -c local -i 127.0.0.1, -e myvar=true -e something="yes"

PLAY [do stuff with curlies] ***************************************************

changed: [127.0.0.1]

I will go ahead and use "myvar | bool" everywhere as that too works.

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On Thursday, 7 December 2017 12.04.42 CET jepper wrote:
> The problem is that when: "{{ something == 'yes' and myvar }}" yields the
> desired result e.g.:
>
> ansible-playbook play.yml -c local -i 127.0.0.1, -e myvar=true -e
> something="yes"
> PLAY [do stuff with curlies]
> ***************************************************
> changed: [127.0.0.1]

That's just luck since Jinja doesn't support stacked curly brackets.

> I will go ahead and use "myvar | bool" everywhere as that too works.

Variables values on the command line become strings so you would need to filter it with bool or check for the actual string.


--
Kai Stian Olstad