Ansible when variable is empty. yml files in vars/main.

Ansible when variable is empty If bar is empty, you want to use other value (f. ) and if so, for how long? Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. Commented Oct 19, 2021 at 13:03. Set variable if empty or not defined with ansible. Let’s say you want to set foo to value of the bar, but only if bar is not empty. Viewed 76k times 30 . The Purpose The purpose of this post is to give you a real-time example and explanation of how ansible variable is defined and not defined (undefined) conditionals are working along with [WARNING]: * Failed to parse /etc/ansible/hosts with yaml plugin: YAML inventory has invalid structure, it should be a dictionary, got: <class 'ansible. How to check whether variable is defined, when dictionary may be missing in ansible/j2. yml Don't use global variables inside a role. builtin. general. yml shell> ansible-playbook playbook. Therefore I need to pass an expression to the when parameter of fail. So your when: condition should have additional check for NoneType: - hosts: localhost vars: lesson: name: Physics students: tasks: - name: Display student names As seen above, the problem is that Ansible considers the empty string "" as a valid value. Other older alternatives not recommended or even not working: result. 233. 11. Banthita Limwilai Banthita Limwilai. In Ansible version 2. Things like {{p. I'm trying to register a variable with the output to a query of a F5 pool and I'm getting this error: "<type 'list'>": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!", What is that I'm doing wrong? ansible variable reference : unable to read stdout_lines from register variable after ssh and command Variable is empty or no defined in Ansible. Jinja2 includes many built-in filters and Ansible supplies many more filters. Filters in Ansible are from Jinja2, and are used for transforming data inside a template expression. Setting an array which is stored in a variable does not. x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Nov 9 16:09:48 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Within these conditional statements, it’s common to compare variables with values, including empty strings. Note that the implicit localhost does not match ‘all’ Any idea how I can have nested variables in ansible when statements. using ansible variable in task conditonal. 2cent: try quotes arround "{{ paramb }}" Anyway, yes, the playbook will fail, and I think won't start at all if referencing a non-existent variable. Related. As you can see, in the second example, the interpreter is marked as “bin/sh” and the file contains “double square brackets” syntax, which could fail on so many different oses. 108. with_items: "{{ required_vars }}" Currently you are providing a list of a single element with a statically defined string required_vars. Ansible Test vs Filter? After ansible 2. This probably used to work in the past but with Ansible 2. 3 KB. stdout_lines: VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED! This is true, because you loop over a Ansible module and register ALL output into ONE variable. cfg file pointing to a local inventory file (called hosts). 7 this variable is undefined. The script should execute some task only on hosts where some variable is defined. debug: msg: "{{ foo[key] }}" vars: key: register variable. Modified 5 years, 2 months ago. However if I query the whole ansible_env variable, ORACLE_HOME is specified: - name: Print ansible_env debug: msg: "{{ ansible_env }}" Check if arrays are defined and not empty in ansible. How to check that an environment variable is non-empty in Ansible? 1. newer ansible versions should 'just work' with localhost, any other host you want to use should appear in inventory (default is /etc/ansible/hosts) but you can even define in command line '-i "hostname,"' < comma is important as it tells ansible it is a list. check variable value from host_vars null or not. Here is what I have and what I have tried. Exit script if when any variable is left empty comments. How do I make sure that a lot of variables are not undefined, empty or null when passed to a role in a simple way? Thanks for your help. When Condition with Ansible. If it's empty or undefined, I'd like to fail in the role. In this case Ansible will ignore the parameter with the optional variable if it is not defined. Ansible to loop until Q: "The variable stored in the register is empty. 9 you must use jinja test syntax as opposed to filter syntax when performing a test:. utils. palletsprojects. The variable is defined, but it is set to NoneType. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to > ansible-proje@googlegroups. A minimal example playbook--- - hosts: localhost become: false gather_facts: false vars: system_users: tasks: - debug: msg: "{{ This little python trick works great in Ansible. add_host only adds your host to the currently running Ansible, and that doesn't propagate to the copy of Ansible you call. 77 # Ip can be used as well ldap_port: 389 Playbook - hosts: k8s_master become: true gather_facts: true vars_files: Ansible When Variable is Defined examples. Ansible "when" condition is not functioning even if the condition is met. it helps to understand the source inventory easier. com <mailto:ansible-proje@googlegroups. if a role is used multiple times via include_role or tasks are used multiple times via include_tasks. To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community. You can also set variables using the command line or environment variables. as a different way to check, you could try 'z' not in y (i know that does not answer yout question but it could keep you going. 15 (default, Ma If you configure Ansible to ignore undefined variables, you may want to define some values as mandatory. 49. cfg file to this: [defaults] ansible_managed = This file is managed by Ansible. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name ternary. yml) - name: Variable experiment hosts: all tasks: - import_role: name: ansible-role-variable-experiment Role (ansible-role-variable-experiment) tasks/main. parsing. stdout" Share. Remove empty element from list in ansible. So, what I am trying to achieve is to ansible adding data to empty list from variable. Quoting from Registering variables: "Note: If a task fails or is skipped, the variable still is registered with a failure or skipped status, the only way to avoid registering a variable is using tags. it states the variable is not initialized and if i keep the playbook the variables are still empty or rather undefined. Fail if variable does not match a regular expression. User['first_name'] or 'default'}} will not catch that case and will convert False to I'm trying to have list of paths. A: You can't. Jinja2 filters let you transform the value of a variable within a template expression. 181 1 1 gold badge 3 3 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. How to check if the variable is empty or defined or undefined in Ansible using ansible when. Hot Network Questions Function of the L•H adjustements on Shimano LX brake levers? Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. So the trick here is: “{{ APPLICATIONNAME }}” is not set. The The purpose of this post is to give you a real-time example and explanation of how ansible variable is defined and not defined (undefined) conditionals are working along with "when" conditional statement and how it msg: the 'foo' variable is empty. THANK YOU :) – Khaled. Not totally related, but you can also check for both undefined AND empty (for e. You can configure Ansible to allow undefined variables by setting DEFAULT_UNDEFINED_VAR_BEHAVIOR to false. Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 12:35. 4. For AWS, inventory_hostname will be The PARSER does not know ansible_role_dir, no. If you need to start with a variable expansion, simply surround the whole thing with double quotes (like "{{ foo }}"), to force Yaml to see it as a string and pass it as-is to Ansible. An other one a bit counter intuitive but more compact to write is to simply reject elements (which by default will reject all non empty values). You used the variable in a playbook, maybe that works. In Ansible, how to check if Undefined does not necessarily mean the same thing as, say, null, empty, nil, false, etc. g. I tried when: foo|bool as mentionned but it returns false every time the variable is filled with a This workes: - name: check required vars empty fail: msg="Variable ' { { item }}' is empty" when: vars [item] == "" with_items: " { { required_vars }}" This too: - name: check i have a variable (domain_name) located on external YML file, I wish to run a task in case the variable is empty. foo: [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. However, it may be necessary to unset these before execution, e. Hot Network Questions How could an Alcubierre/Warp Drive work in my science-fantasy story? Can quantum computers connect to classical computers to produce output? Implied warranties vs. The variable substitution in command: echo {{ ansible_role_dir }} is done at RUN-time, using the variable for each individual host. Hot Network Questions PCB quality clarifications 80-90s sci-fi movie in which scientists did something to make the world pitch-black because the ozone layer had depleted Are plastic stems on TPU tubes supposed to be reliable It would appear from the output that a_hosts_ip is a list and not a string so it does not in fact equal the empty string. I'm struggling to find a way to fail the playbook even if http_requests list is left empty like this This is the best answer because so many others do not differentiate between False and None. ingress[0]. For instance - hosts: localhost remote_user: root roles: - role: ansible-aks name: myaks resource_group: myresourcegroup The string content of a registered variable can be empty. This is not because of Ansible, but Yaml would interpret this as an object. shell> cat test. Neither of the following work when set in the group vars and result in the task working. You can use Jinja2 syntax in playbooks. Hot Network Questions Issue Type: Bug Report Ansible Version: ansible 2. yaml. If possible they The easy intuitive way is to select the elements equal to an empty string. ansible check variable is defined and has a value. Ansible: configure nginx role to use custom port read from variable. Ended up having to do a test on both @Garret and @Carsten / @azalea answers, so: {% if variable is defined and variable %} value of variable Make your life easier and put the ns* variables into a dictionary. When this new variable is further used to create another variable by string concatenation, that variable is st Skip to content. Before all these domains can be undefined, it's necessary to destroy Whereby I prefer the already given answer as accepted one because it initialize variables and creates clear defined and desired states, just for the record an other possible approach based on Ansible - How to check variable type?. Can someone help me with adding data to an empty list from a cli variable? list; loops; ansible; Share. One thing I can also suggest although I don’t have a laptop to test currently is: Play2: The string content of a registered variable can be empty. From some reason, it is always skipping no matter if i have a When statement in Ansible In Ansible, the “when” keyword is used to specify a condition or a set of conditions that must be met in order for a task to be executed. "-name: validate data in json format using jsonschema with lookup plugin by passing plugin configuration variable as task variable ansible. The reason why I took two steps (and used two register variables) is that these domains could assume various states, e. Hi Emmanuel, vars: parent: child1: true tasks: - name: "Check if variable is defined" There is a difference between an undefined variable, and variable having None value. But I want to make sure that the role is not being executed when someone forgets to set the variable. A group dedicated to learning Django, a Python web framework. Based on the content of the variable, the when condition could still not do the trick, because the validity of the data passed to the loop will be considered first. 10. How to create a 'null' default in Ansible. Playbook (var-exp. If the same variable is set at different levels, the most specific level takes precedence. Sample input and output Use variables in Ansible when statement. See ansible/ansible#39414 for related details. These devices, R1 and R2, are in my /etc/hosts file, and I can SSH to them. Using simple variables in conditionals causes trouble when: my_var, but hash variables in conditionals works as expected: when: my_hash. How to ignore specific errors in an Ansible task. None is a placeholder for "null / empty / has no value". 4. However for 'frank' I want the primary group to be an existing one; gid 1003. 2 Ansible Configuration: default Environment: Managing from: OS X 10. That is, a string containing only spaces should not be true under -z, because it has a non-zero length. To access fields of each host, use hostvars['test-1'], hostvars['test2-1'], If for some reason you can’t or don’t want to define this variable, you can make it optional. Hot Network Running the playbook without value1 defined or with empty value1. You need to change the data type of the elements in your required_vars Looks like it works now but only for hash variables. Ansible: Run a task only when variable is not empty. Jinja2 variables use double curly braces. yml file example is apparently missing a block definition (please edit) 2) checking the length of a defined but empty variable (even as imbricated reference) should theoretically do what you expect so you need to provide a minimal reproducible example. If you want to run another task only on hosts where the stdout of your registered variable is empty, check the registered variable’s string contents for emptiness: With the variables above, Ansible would run one of these tasks and skip the other: tasks:-name: Run the command if A: The Ansible when variable equals condition can be used for a variety of purposes, including: Checking if a variable is set; Checking if a variable has a specific value; Checking if a variable is different from a specific value; Checking if a variable is empty; Checking if a variable contains a specific string; Q: What are some tips for using A Subreddit dedicated to fostering communication in the Ansible Community, includes Ansible, AWX, Ansible Tower, Ansible Galaxy, ansible-lint, Molecule, etc. Let's say you have a playbook that should only be executed when the "foo" variable is defined and contains a value. the length of string is zero. How to check if multiple ansible variables are defined without warnings? 1. Ansible, how to check if a variable is not null? 3. This means that the variable is assigned the empty string instead of remaining undefined so that the default value can be assigned. Put these into another register variable. Here is what I have - name: Get Shipa API address shell: kubectl --namespace=shipa-system get svc shipa-ingress-nginx -o jsonpath="{. First, register the variable, then use the fail ansible module to inspect the var and fail if a condition is met. However, I'm not able to figure out what I need to pass. my_id is a global variable and authorised is an empty dictionary (authorised: {} ) is there a way to add a conditional to skip the tasks when authorised is an empty dictionary. The length filter is used to determine the length of the foo variable. Certainly! Let's break down the information about variable precedence in Ansible: 1. Variable Scopes and Precedence: Ansible variables can be set at different scopes, including play level, host level (host_vars), and command-line level. See this snippet for outlining the logic: - hosts: localhost vars: test: # test array - fail: false - fail: false - fail: true - fail: false tasks: - name: iterate and fail fail: msg: "Fail as requested" with_items: "{{ test Is there a possibility to unset a fact (variable) in Ansible? Unset in such a way that the check is defined fails. 6, the evaluation of an empty string as a boolean works fine but the evaluation of a non-empty string depends on ANSIBLE_CONDITIONAL_BARE_VARS. If you want use global variables define the role specific variable & set global variable to it i. Execute task when variable is not empty module_name: module_arguments when: my_variable is not empty This task will only be executed if the variable “my_variable” is not I want 'lucy' to follow the user module creators' default behaviour which is to create and use a group matching the user name 'lucy'. 189. 2: If your variable variable1 is declared: when: "'value' in variable1" If you registered variable1 then: when: "'value' in variable1. Information about Ansible: magic variables. $ ansible - So, there are two cases where this will apply: When trying to access a key of a dictionary from a variable, you would simply use the variable as is, remembering that, when you are inside the expression delimiters {{ }}, a string will be interpreted as a variable, if not enclosed inside simple or double quotes. when: foo | length == 0. It is not included in ansible-core. The ansible-doc fail command can be used to show the Ansible So, for Ansible, I use a pipe default to set a default value that I can test for as a string. 143 2 2 silver In Ansible, defined and not defined means literally "this variable has been declared / has not been declared". How to use host_vars in Ansible? 1. This way you can catch both the empty string and empty list scenario as both are Workes, but you cannot check the value of the variable, just if it is not undefined. How to get items out of a list and create a I also tried with foo=None and it prints an empty string. In 2. Ansible version. Check only string using ansible. Learn the Ansible automation technology with some real-life examples in my Udemy 300+ Lessons Video Course. ternary for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same How to check that an environment variable is non-empty in Ansible? 3. Hot Network Questions ansible empty dictionary conditional. After you define a variable, use Jinja2 syntax to reference it. Ansible, how to check if a variable is not null? 2. 0: 0: November 6, 2018 Problem using when condition for empty variable. Normaly this is a variable in vars/app1. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot. Use a default if a variable is not defined. How to check if directory is empty in Ansible, and if empty jus skip task? ansible; Share. An empty string comparison is typically used to check if a variable has been defined or has a value. It is a built-in feature of Ansible to use the default variable if the variable is not defined. (Empty or not defined). Ansible When variable is undefined examples. 1. Also, no Ansible statement can start with variable expansion (like {{ foo }}). Hot Network Questions Must companies keep records of internal messages (emails, Slack messages, MS Teams chats, etc. values empty for variables - ansible. 0. Determine /all/ domain names. loadBalancer. From some reason, it is always skipping no matter if i have a value or not External Yaml domain_name: ldap_server_hostname: 10. It would mostly work on “advanced” ‘sh’ compliant shells. The goal of the play is to receive the data from prompt (the method I'm using now but open to cli) and append to a list. So the best you can do is set the value of the variable to an empty value or doesn't set the variable at all. I have an ansible playbook that loops a registered variable outputting the . How to check whether variable is Im trying to create a simple Ansible script that loops through a command until it returns an IP. in hosts file is_at=True in playbook file: role: test when: not is_at also tried: role: test when: is_at | bool == False what Ansible assumes that you have all your hosts in an inventory file somewhere. You can find more examples of supported conditionals at https://jinja. Ansible - condition if a For example to make the output of the ansible_managed variable more readable, we can change the definition in the ansible. Check one of the file exist or not in ansible. 0) defined 1) shutoff 2) suspended (aka paused) 3) running. How to handle empty list in Ansible loop. Ansible lookup file variable. Ansible: Jinja2 template test both a variable is defined and not empty. For example: with_items: "{{ users }}" and also I am trying to split my Ansible role variables into multiple files - as per this answer, it should be possible to create a vars/main directory, and all the . "no returns or refunds" signs CircuiTikZ distance between ground symbol and the assosciated label Now you know better how to troubleshoot the Ansible VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED! message. - debug: var=symlinks w To save to a variable use as below - name: test set_fact: test: "{{ item }}" when: item. A Subreddit dedicated to fostering communication in the Ansible Community, includes Ansible, AWX, Ansible Tower, Ansible Galaxy, ansible-lint, Molecule, etc. The following playbook demonstrate both solutions which give the same result. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list. This note shows how to skip a module’s parameter in Ansible if a variable is not defined. g my_variable:) variable. Ansible facts Ansible facts are data related to your remote systems, including operating systems, IP addresses, attached filesystems, and more. Unable to get correct behaviour from Ansible boolean variable. 3. If firewall Convert value of an Ansible variable from lower case to upper case. I have a variable set to “true” and I want to run this role only if is_at is false. That is why if you completely remove the variable, the is defined conditional suddenly works. Execute a task when a variable is defined in ansible. We even had a rule [E602] Don't compare to empty string in ansible-lint which recommended instead doing when: var == "" to just do when: var which is more pythonic. Ansible: Set variable only if undefined. gitlab_project_variable. Check if a value is part of a list, the name of the list being in a variable How to get the values of Manipulate control variables programmatically into a variable Sum of odd numbers can never equal their least common multiple Luke 4:6 - Did the devil tell the truth? Here're my Ansible code So, my question is how can I handle that empty fields? Thanks a ton . The actual You are on the right track about hostvars. Ansible Project. %n (. See Defining variables at runtime. yml). So, the good workaround for now is avoid using simple variables in string conditionals like when: my_var. Var="{{some_filter| default('undefined') }}" - debug: . " A: A tag is missing in the task service_facts. (NOTE: only works with ansible version > 1. To use it in a playbook, specify: community. objects. > To view this discussion on the web visit the reasons i want check list empty or not is to use it in if statement later – josh. Fix it for example - name: Check for apache status service_facts: tags: toto2 i have a variable (domain_name) located on external YML file, I wish to run a task in case the variable is empty. 6. Note. By default, you can also access some Ansible facts as top-level variables with the Any idea how I can have nested variables in ansible when statements. If you want to run another task only on hosts where the stdout of your registered variable is empty, check the registered variable’s string contents for emptiness: With the variables above, Ansible would run one of these tasks and skip the other: tasks:-name: Run the command if Referencing simple variables. Understanding Ansible Rule 602 Unfortunately play variables do not persist in between plays by design in Ansible, generally I would try and group the tasks in a play together but you can write your vars to files on the local Host or remote node in play 2 and then read that file in play 3. Hot Network Questions Can a ship like Starship roll during re-entry? Is it OK to use longjmp to break out of qsort? Should I just stop applying for admission to PhD with my research gap of 8 years? Are there actual correct representations of curved spacetime? With the way op proposed: Environment uses proxy_env but if it is not defined default filter will set the proxy_env to nothing so it will be able to validate that is empty correctly. this is not the address ansible connects to. Commented Nov 18, 2022 at 10:21. vbotka (Vladimir Botka) December 16, 2019, 12:10pm 2. Bartosz Bilicki using ansible variable in task conditonal. ansible playbook: print custom message if hosts variable is not defined. set_fact: If data is valid returns empty list. Ansible check if value exists in dictionary list. Variable is empty or no defined in Ansible. 0. I have just tried So, to clear things up, the fact gathering in Windows and Linux are not implementing the same variable, you sure can work around this, implementing an inline-if: - debug: msg: >- {{ ansible_hostname }} {{ ansible_ip_addresses if ansible_os_family == "Windows" else ansible_default_ipv4. Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. On my ansible play I use vars_prompt to get values for switch port interfaces. In this article, i’ll show how to test if a variable exists or not, if How to check if multiple ansible variables are defined without warnings? 1. This magic variable is used to access information about other hosts. Commented Nov 4, 2016 at 14:24. Ask Question Asked 8 years, 9 months ago. r/djangolearning. Is any chance during the loop just to ignore it, because password is not required field? First, note that the -z test is explicitly for:. 1. Jinja2 ships with many filters. it will evaluate to empty dict but the task will be skipped by when. However we can also use jinja2 if/else conditions inside a playbook. Setting an empty array in the defaults filter works described here. You can manage that situation defining an empty variable in the defaults of your role and skipping a specific task with the conditional: when variable is not defined that means the variable exists but is empty. Add a comment | I had an issue like this in Ansible. How can set the variable to null through inventory or extra-vars? This may be useful when I want to unset a variable already defined in a playbook. It might match, but it does not have to For me ipify_public_ip variable is empty – Davide. It allows Set variable if empty or not defined with ansible. check variable null is In this example first_found lookup return file name if file exists or empty list otherwise. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details. name in List1 loop: "{{FullList}}" Share. With lists if I Deprecation warnings can be disabled by setting deprecation_warnings=False in ansible. Ask Question Asked 6 years ago. shell> ansible-playbook playbook. 10 On managing host user rob: id uid=501(rob) Summary: Variable ansible_user in None I'm trying to insert an output of Linux shell to a variable, but for some reason, the variable always empty. Ansible to check particular directory exists, if not create it. Variable validation helps avoid playbook failures and hard to debug runtime errors and side-effects caused by. How to check that an environment variable is non-empty in Ansible? 0. In that case, the variable contains a list of results. $ ansible --version ansible [WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, RomainMou changed the title Ternary can't use undfined variable if concatenate to a string Ternary can't use undefined variable if concatenate to a string Jun 11, Summary I want to set a default value for a variable that has an empty value assigned. in ansible-core 2. 14 an expression {{ defined_variable or undefined_variable }} does not fail on undefined_variable if the first part of or is evaluated to True as it is not needed to evaluate the second part. e. Is there a By ‘bashism’ I meant “it is not ‘sh’ syntax”. username }} Transforming variables with Jinja2 filters . Here is the Ansible code: - name: Check PHP version shell: php -v 2> /dev/null | awk '{print $2; exit}' register: php_version - debug: var=php_version And here is Sometimes, roles need different mandatory variables that needs to be defined when calling them. For example, the capitalize filter capitalizes any value passed to it; the to_yaml and to_json filters change the format of your variable values. Ansible/Jinja2 - How to write jinja if statement that queries if a variable is defined? 1. com>. Hot Network Questions Embedding 2k of RAM into video chip in 1987 Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. Take into account that templating happens on the Ansible controller, not on the task’s target host, so filters also execute on the controller as they manipulate local data. Run an Ansible task only when the variable contains a specific string. What you want is to remove the spaces from the variable using the pattern replacement parameter expansion: [[ -z "${param// }" ]] If the loop variable must be a list, it looks like I can define an empty list, e. - ansible. There are several useful tests that you can make using Jinja2 builtin tests and filers. Does anyone know a way to filter the input, so I can manipulate the tests_to_run list, so it does not have any empty elements. Meaning: Jinja2 What are Ansible Tests? According to the Ansible docs, Tests are:. I thought this was going to be an easy thing to accomplish but nothing seems to work. Thanks! – The plugin configuration option can be either passed as key=value pairs within lookup plugin or task or environment variables. *) on some Python versions will match the whole string and an empty string at the end, which means it will make two replacements input: - tests_to_run tasks: modify_user_input: < Remove the empty elements from tests_to_run> Have been searching for hours. Follow asked as title says, is there a way to use two variables if one is empty and set another var? can I use something like this? example, if i have an Ansible variable server=5015 and env server is empty How to check if the variable is empty or defined or undefined in Ansible using ansible when. ansible - looping over no existing value. AnsibleUnsafeText object' has no attribute 'iteritems'"} If the list is empty nothing will happen. Modified 8 years, 3 months ago. 2. How to use when condition in Ansible? 0. Interestingly the jinja2 if condition handles the empty string differently than Ansible's when condition; the variable is considered empty and therefore not-existant. cfg. 9, see: link) ansible - variable within variable. inventory vars. Hot Network Questions \currfileabsdir\currfilebase produces a wrong path when the input Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. Remove null values from stdout in ansible. ansible; yaml; Share. Allow null or empty values in a variable using Ansible. el7. stdout | length > 0 That is the pythonic way of evaluating truth, null, empty strings, empty lists all evaluate as false. This filter plugin is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. How to test if part of output is not null. Commented Sep 28, 2017 at 18:35. I would suggest using the conditional when: not a_hosts_ip because that will go through the templating engine and jinja2 will use python truth value testing to evaluate the conditional. Ansible: Skip loop when list is undefined. I am using Ansible version 2. 11. In that list, there are empty strings as some of the keys don't have values assigned to them. stdout which works perfectly in ansible tower but stdout is blank or empty when I run it natively. In this article, i’ll show the examples of how to test a variable in Ansible: if it exists or not, if it is empty or not and if it is set to True or False. 0 config file = configured module search path = Default w/o overrides python version = 2. 9. 3. – Matthew Schuchard. py, there is a skip parameter, but I would expect any module to either skip or fail when items are empty, not behave in a Two problems here: You want to iterate over the value of required_vars variable value, so you need to provide it as an argument to with_items: "{{ required_vars }}":. Later in my playbook, I combine the variable with Ansible's user module to add either sudo or wheel to an account's secondary groups depending on the OS Ansible is running on: I don't know if you want to check if the variable is "null" as a text or if the variable doesn't have a value and it's nullified so I will write both examples :), make null value a string and compare as a string: How to skip the loop if the list is empty in Ansible. yml That being said 1) your checkVars. > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ansible Project" group. Share. uname -a Linux ******** 3. mudricd mudricd. 0-1160. You're going to have to either: change the command to use an inline inventory list, like ansible all -i '{{ hostname }},' -m setup (More details re the use of -i Saved searches Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly Variables can be defined in various places in Ansible, such as inventory files, playbooks, roles, or variable files (e. The variables folder (web_folder, app_folder or db_folder ) may be undefined and is expected to be undefined. So if you want to define a default value for a variable you should set it in role Note. hostvars is a hash with inventory hostnames as keys. When you set variable name, but leave the right hand side empty. yml -e value1=OK gives Check the defined variable is empty or not in Ansible. Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 12:14. TASK [Show list of deployments] ***** ok: [localhost] => check_deployments. I learned about embedding the conditional in the loop, and returning an empty list in the else. AnsibleUnicode'> [WARNING]: * Failed to parse /etc/ansible/hosts with ini plugin: /etc/ansible/hosts:3: Expected key=value host variable assignment, got: ; [WARNING]: Unable Variable is empty or no defined in Ansible. 168. Looking at the docs for first_found. This example uses the term "first_name" which we can assume will not expect a value of False, but there are many cases where a system needs to treat False and None differently. For example, the expression users goes to {{ users }} demonstrates the most basic form of variable substitution. Follow asked May 19, 2016 at 10:38. I have a local ansible. Improve this answer. Commented Oct 26, 2018 at 15:32. It's not literally a string called 'None'. In Ansible 2. 2675. Academy. However, this approach can introduce code that is less clear and might lead to ambiguity. Improve this answer Ansible: Check if a variable contains a list or dictionary. You can access this data in the ansible_facts variable. If you are using a jinja filter or module that requires a string to function, then it will Best to explain with an example We have tasks setup like name: do something shell: do task when: foo is defined This works perfectly for most situations however we have a number of places where we need to unset the variable to stop the command on certain hosts. Then you can simply reference the values in the loop instead of listing the variables again. assert After all, it’s not just with_first_found - with_fileglob can also return an empty list, and it’s not out of the question to pass a variable to with_items that might be the empty list. The local inventory file (hosts) identifies two routers (R1 and R2). If file exists, ternary filter calls ini lookup, otherwise omit placeholder is returned. yml Here is the full code: /vars/app1. It works fine normally, but it doesn't work with the with_items statement. In the example run_targets is undefined, targets should be used instead. If the variable is defined but the list is empty, then the template will show http-request with no value. As a result, this task is skipped and ansible_facts. Using default to create an empty list or dict is useful when you are creating a new fact by iterating over another object (such as the results of a looped task) I would like to set a default array if a variable is empty. – mhalano. Follow answered Mar 4, 2020 at 1:04. ansible Iterate var only if var is not empty. How to NOT to loop in ansible if one of the variable is undefined. , vars/main. Is this correct? - name: Check if variable 'var1' and 'var2' are defined and not empty fail: msg="Variable 'var1' and/or 'var2' not defined or empty" when: (var1 is undefined or not var1) or (var2 is undefined or not var2) Thanks in advance for the help. Ansible only run when subelement of variable exists. empty or otherwise not comtains strings, omit the whole thing My solution I pasted above works, but it's long and kinda ugly - I'm assuming there's a better way but I'm not seeing it I have a list generated in Ansible using values gathered by a task. Ansible "when variable == true" not behaving as expected. " ISSUE TYPE Bug Report COMPONENT NAME shell ANSIBLE VERSION ansible --version ansible 2. my_var. com/en/latest/templates/#comparisons. Now this said, you can use a conditional expression in the loop declaration itself to come around this issue: - name: Log into additional docker registries, when required command: docker login -u {{ item. x the variable precedence starts like this: role defaults. How to filter unmatched value from ansible variable. address }} {# Mind that you still have to implement your own logic of Ansible check if dictionary exists. Ansible/YAML treats single and double quotes roughly the same, at least for the purpose of strings and Jinja templeting. Cool Tip: Test if the variable in Jinja2 There are many options to control execution flow in Ansible. Usually I give my variables empty values test: ~ and your solution could recognise that. Take a look at the Ansible documentation concerning variable precedence. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible. filter syntax: {{ name|striptags|title }} (remove all HTML Tags from variable name and title-case the output How to check that an environment variable is non-empty in Ansible? 3. 7. stdout != "" would not pass ansible-lint check! I'd like to check if my variables are defined and not empty before continuing the execution of my playbook. yml -e value1='' gives. By default, Ansible fails if a variable in your playbook or command is undefined. Invoking this playbook should return something like this. . 16. Follow asked Feb 23, 2020 at 13:18. 3 Managed host: Ubuntu 15. You can use variables in the “when” statement to define conditional expressions that depend on the values of variables. When: var != "undefined" . Check if a given key already exists in a dictionary. yml files in that directory should be DR version: it is a bug in ansible, caused by the presence of empty . a way of evaluating template expressions and returning True or False. zone_records: [], which also works. Here are some things which I've already tried and didn't work: Ansible: Conditional "when" clause with empty variable. In Jinja2 templates, it is often a good practice to test if a variable exists and what value does it carry. Additionally, ran across 'is defined' filter and that also got past the problem. – DustWolf. status. unsafe_proxy. some_role_name__db_port: "{{ db_port | default(5432) }}". string . In this case I just don't want the undefined value in For years, we used the fact that a boolean False, a numeric 0, an empty list [] or an empty dictionary {} or None, all evaluate as false in conditions. See builtin filters in the official Jinja2 template documentation. I followed this guide to use the extra_vars: https: If you really want or need to use environment variables for your playbooks, ansible has a way to se the environment variables for each task. txt LINE=” This string must be included” When the variable is both defined and not empty, e. Ansible passing variables to roles. With this way he don't need to check if the variables inside the dict are defined or not, you are setting the entire dict default ({}). 8. --- - hosts: all vars: foo: "" tasks: - name: fail when the 'foo' variable is undefined fail: msg: the 'foo' variable is undefined when: foo is undefined - name: fail when the 'foo' variable is empty fail: msg A variable set to null is defined but empty. I would propose to split it up into two distinct tasks. For execution decisions I regularly check conditions with is defined. It's a moving target. Check if an element exists in Ansible. Prompts for individual vars_prompt variables will be skipped for any variable that is already defined through the command line --extra-vars option, or when running from a non-interactive session (such as cron or Ansible AWX). Cool Tip: How to set default values for variables in Ansible! In particular, we focus on variable validation in Ansible roles, although the same approach works anywhere. services is not defined. Hot Network Questions Evaluate the limit involving the summation of natural logarithm Is there a word or a name for a linguistic construct where saying you can do a thing implies you can do it well? I have no errors with ansible-playbook --check (with omit), but finally it doesn`t work, because password cannot be empty. Issue with Ansible wait_for module - how to reliably check if the VM is up and running? As of 2018, the recommended way to test if output is empty is just: when: result. ip}" environment: TERM: dumb register: shipa_api Ansible 1. It makes sense to use role name as the prefix for variable. How to set environment in ansible task only when variable is defined. FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "AnsibleUndefinedVariable: 'ansible. Improve this question. There is a PR out for it already. How to omit if variable is empty in Ansibe? 1. Undefined variables; Invalid variable values; Ansible variable validation with ansible. 7: 0: May 11, 2020 Ho do I unset/remove/delete a variable in Ansible? Ansible Project. – Dirk. grafik 1430×202 11. How to find if the variable is defined in Ansible using when. yml files in vars/main. No matter what I do, the role runs. See here. 1: 0: February 26, 2016 The environment variable, ANSIBLE_CONFIG is empty. I'd like to check that an environment variable is defined and non-empty in Ansible 2. Is it possible to check whether a dynamic variable is defined in Ansible? 1. Hot Network Questions environment variable with su - and systemd-run su - Teaching tensor products in a 2nd linear algebra course Optimal strategy for 1 How to assign an empty value to a variable in Ansible? Ask Question Asked 8 years, 3 months ago. uqww nlq woirdinnv bsm pwdgh gikps psiysse snwcmfc afiymn siarzu