when: state is present from variable dict hash list

[Chris Short]

I have the following defined in group_vars and I'm trying to run a task when the state is defined as present and the syntax is baffling me:

staff:

  - { netid: user001, uid: 12345, comment: "Chris Short", state: present }

  - { netid: user002, uid: 12346, comment: "Bob Jones", state: absent }

The play is like this:

- name: Do Something

  shell: script.sh

  with_items:

    - "{{ oristaff }}"

  when: ori_staff.state  == 'present'

I've tried several different ways to ascertain state and none of them have worked so far. 

[Brian Coca]

you are referencing it incorrectly, staff is a list not a dictionary, also I think you want the "current item's state":

when: item.state == 'present'

assuming you want to execute the task only for those entries that have that state.

----------

Brian Coca

[Chris Short]

Thank you, bcoca. Helpful as always!

[Uditha Desilva]

You may have a typo or 2 in your sample case. This works fine for me:

$ cat tst.yml

---

- hosts: localhost

  vars:

        staff:

          - { netid: user001, uid: 12345, comment: "Chris Short", state: present }

          - { netid: user002, uid: 12346, comment: "Bob Jones", state: absent }

  tasks:

    - name: Do Something

      shell: "echo 'present: {{ item.netid }}'"

      with_items:

        - "{{ staff }}"

      when: item.state == 'present'

$ ansible-playbook tst.yml

PLAY ***************************************************************************

TASK [setup] *******************************************************************

ok: [localhost]

TASK [Do Something] ************************************************************

changed: [localhost] => (item={u'comment': u'Chris Short', u'state': u'present', u'uid': 12345, u'netid': u'user001'})

skipping: [localhost] => (item={u'comment': u'Bob Jones', u'state': u'absent', u'uid': 12346, u'netid': u'user002'})

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

localhost                  : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0