variable names of variables holding environment variables :)

[Dmitry Makovey]

I know subject sounds kind of crazy, but here's the code to explain it a bit:

- hosts: all

  vars:

  - djbdns_var: 

      FOO: "DJ DNS"

  - vnstat_var: 

      FOO: "VN, stat!"

  tasks:

  - name: Test flexible vars

    command: echo "$FOO"

    environment: "{{ item }}_var"

    with_items:

    - djbdns

    - vnstat

which should be equivalent to something like:

  tasks:

  - name: Test flexible vars (step 1)

    command: echo "$FOO"

    environment:  djbdns_var"

  - name: Test flexible vars (step 2)

    command: echo "$FOO"

    environment:  vnstat_var"

so what I'm trying to do is define different set of environment variables for each step of iteration, and the best way I figured was something like above. However it doesn't work. Ansible (1.5.3) recognizes passed argument as a string and throws an error rather than interpret resulting variable name. 

Question is: can something be done to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

[Mikhail Koshelev]

It depends on context of your actual task. Adding top-level hash will do if you can put definitions for all *_var data in a single unit.
For multiple units (f.e. per-role definitions) you may try to set "hash_behaviour=merge" in ansible.cfg, though this is generally not recommended.

- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars:
  - cmd_envs:
      djbdns: { FOO: "DJ DNS" }
      vnstat: { FOO: "VN, stat!" }

  tasks:
  - name: Test flexible vars
    command: echo "$FOO"

    environment: cmd_envs[item]

    with_items:
    - djbdns
    - vnstat

[Dmitry Makovey]

that sounds like something I need. Thanks!

[Dmitry Makovey]

after tinkering with above idea I've got things working exactly how I wanted. Thanks for the tip!