Item exists in list of dicts?

[Nico K.]

Hi,

I've been restructuring my variables and ended up with something along the lines of:

files:

  - { src: 'a' }

  - { src: 'b' }

and a role that does:

- name: x

  template:

    src: {{ item.src }}

    ...

    mode: {{ item.mode|default(0755) }}

    owner: {{ item.owner|default(root) }}

This allows me to easily override the ownership/mode on a single file, yet have defaults for them if not specified, it also makes a step like this easily exchangeable with other roles (assuming you use the same variable structure there).

Anyway, what's problematic with such a layout is to determine whether a given file exists in a list of other files (for example for the sake of removing unmanaged files), think:

(Please bear in mind that I'm typing this from memory, so if I mixed up the syntax of a module, no need to point that out, just trying to illustrate my use-case)

- name: collect files..

  shell: blah

  register: found_files

- name: remove unmanaged

  file:

    path: {{ item }} 

    state: absent

  with_items:

    - found_files

  when: item not in files 

This is where it goes wrong, as files no longer is a flat list, but a list containing a dictionary; is there an easy way to say "when: item not in files.[*].src"? Or do I have to start using with_nested in this case (results in quite some overhead!!).

Thanks,

Nico 

[Nico K.]

In case anyone cares, the way to do this is:

- name: x

  set_fact:

    src_from_list: "{{ files|map(attribute='src')|list }}"

- name: y

  debug: msg='{{ item }}'

  with_items: 

    - "{{ src_from_list }}"

which then outputs the values of 'src' (that being 'a', and 'b')

Thanks,

Nico