How to loop dict with nested lists?












0















Ansible allows deeply nested dicts, but then doesn't actually allow you to get much use out of them! Here is my story.



I'm trying to configure a number of ini files with Ansible. To this end, I am using the ini_file module. This module requires at a minimum, four pieces of information:




  1. File path

  2. Section

  3. Option

  4. Value of that option


So, I've defined a dict:



  vars:

    conf:

      "/etc/conf1.ini":

        - section: main

          option: foo

          val: bar

        - section: main

          option: baz

          val: qux

      "/etc/otherconf.ini":

        - section: options

          option: flower

          val: bird


And so on. So, I can use:



  - name: Write ini files

    ini_file:

      path: "{{ item.0.key }}"

      section: "{{ item.1.section }}"

      option: "{{ item.1.option }}"

      value: "{{ item.1.val }}"

    loop: "{{ conf | dict2items | subelements('value') }}"


This... works. I can continue to use this. Example output of /etc/conf1.ini:



[main]

foo = bar

baz = qux


Question: Is there a better way? How can I organize my data to work better with (the new style of) Ansible loops? (i.e. nothing that starts with with_)



Note: I also really don't like having to use a fully qualified path as a dict key; I'd rather it be e.g. path: "/etc/conf1.ini" somehow.



Note 2: I don't have to have this all in one single variable, conf, but if I have one variable per ini file, how do I loop that?






ansible yaml ini







share|improve this question


















  • 1





    I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

    – Cupcake Protocol
    Nov 14 '18 at 0:46











  • If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:11











  • Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:26






  • 1





    @CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:47











  • @M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:48


















0















Ansible allows deeply nested dicts, but then doesn't actually allow you to get much use out of them! Here is my story.



I'm trying to configure a number of ini files with Ansible. To this end, I am using the ini_file module. This module requires at a minimum, four pieces of information:




  1. File path

  2. Section

  3. Option

  4. Value of that option


So, I've defined a dict:



  vars:

    conf:

      "/etc/conf1.ini":

        - section: main

          option: foo

          val: bar

        - section: main

          option: baz

          val: qux

      "/etc/otherconf.ini":

        - section: options

          option: flower

          val: bird


And so on. So, I can use:



  - name: Write ini files

    ini_file:

      path: "{{ item.0.key }}"

      section: "{{ item.1.section }}"

      option: "{{ item.1.option }}"

      value: "{{ item.1.val }}"

    loop: "{{ conf | dict2items | subelements('value') }}"


This... works. I can continue to use this. Example output of /etc/conf1.ini:



[main]

foo = bar

baz = qux


Question: Is there a better way? How can I organize my data to work better with (the new style of) Ansible loops? (i.e. nothing that starts with with_)



Note: I also really don't like having to use a fully qualified path as a dict key; I'd rather it be e.g. path: "/etc/conf1.ini" somehow.



Note 2: I don't have to have this all in one single variable, conf, but if I have one variable per ini file, how do I loop that?






ansible yaml ini







share|improve this question


















  • 1





    I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

    – Cupcake Protocol
    Nov 14 '18 at 0:46











  • If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:11











  • Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:26






  • 1





    @CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:47











  • @M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:48
















0












0








0








Ansible allows deeply nested dicts, but then doesn't actually allow you to get much use out of them! Here is my story.



I'm trying to configure a number of ini files with Ansible. To this end, I am using the ini_file module. This module requires at a minimum, four pieces of information:




  1. File path

  2. Section

  3. Option

  4. Value of that option


So, I've defined a dict:



  vars:

    conf:

      "/etc/conf1.ini":

        - section: main

          option: foo

          val: bar

        - section: main

          option: baz

          val: qux

      "/etc/otherconf.ini":

        - section: options

          option: flower

          val: bird


And so on. So, I can use:



  - name: Write ini files

    ini_file:

      path: "{{ item.0.key }}"

      section: "{{ item.1.section }}"

      option: "{{ item.1.option }}"

      value: "{{ item.1.val }}"

    loop: "{{ conf | dict2items | subelements('value') }}"


This... works. I can continue to use this. Example output of /etc/conf1.ini:



[main]

foo = bar

baz = qux


Question: Is there a better way? How can I organize my data to work better with (the new style of) Ansible loops? (i.e. nothing that starts with with_)



Note: I also really don't like having to use a fully qualified path as a dict key; I'd rather it be e.g. path: "/etc/conf1.ini" somehow.



Note 2: I don't have to have this all in one single variable, conf, but if I have one variable per ini file, how do I loop that?






ansible yaml ini







share|improve this question














Ansible allows deeply nested dicts, but then doesn't actually allow you to get much use out of them! Here is my story.



I'm trying to configure a number of ini files with Ansible. To this end, I am using the ini_file module. This module requires at a minimum, four pieces of information:




  1. File path

  2. Section

  3. Option

  4. Value of that option


So, I've defined a dict:



  vars:

    conf:

      "/etc/conf1.ini":

        - section: main

          option: foo

          val: bar

        - section: main

          option: baz

          val: qux

      "/etc/otherconf.ini":

        - section: options

          option: flower

          val: bird


And so on. So, I can use:



  - name: Write ini files

    ini_file:

      path: "{{ item.0.key }}"

      section: "{{ item.1.section }}"

      option: "{{ item.1.option }}"

      value: "{{ item.1.val }}"

    loop: "{{ conf | dict2items | subelements('value') }}"


This... works. I can continue to use this. Example output of /etc/conf1.ini:



[main]

foo = bar

baz = qux


Question: Is there a better way? How can I organize my data to work better with (the new style of) Ansible loops? (i.e. nothing that starts with with_)



Note: I also really don't like having to use a fully qualified path as a dict key; I'd rather it be e.g. path: "/etc/conf1.ini" somehow.



Note 2: I don't have to have this all in one single variable, conf, but if I have one variable per ini file, how do I loop that?






ansible yaml ini




ansible yaml ini






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked Nov 13 '18 at 22:04









courtlandjcourtlandj

340616




340616








  • 1





    I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

    – Cupcake Protocol
    Nov 14 '18 at 0:46











  • If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:11











  • Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:26






  • 1





    @CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:47











  • @M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:48
















  • 1





    I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

    – Cupcake Protocol
    Nov 14 '18 at 0:46











  • If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:11











  • Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

    – M_dk
    Nov 14 '18 at 11:26






  • 1





    @CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:47











  • @M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

    – courtlandj
    Nov 14 '18 at 15:48










1




1





I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

– Cupcake Protocol
Nov 14 '18 at 0:46





I'm no ansible expert, but two things jump out at me. Is subelements('value') what you are really using or is that a typo for subelements('val')? Secondly, you can clearly use path as another entry in your dictionary and make the key be some label just for humans. (Then you could check for a path subelement...)

– Cupcake Protocol
Nov 14 '18 at 0:46













If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

– M_dk
Nov 14 '18 at 11:11





If the syntax and looping become too complex, I would suggest just using the template module instead.

– M_dk
Nov 14 '18 at 11:11













Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

– M_dk
Nov 14 '18 at 11:26





Also remember that while you can do something thats complex, it might be a better idea to keep it simpler even though it means adding more tasks. At least, thats how I read the best practice guidelines: ansible.com/blog/ansible-best-practices-essentials

– M_dk
Nov 14 '18 at 11:26




1




1





@CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

– courtlandj
Nov 14 '18 at 15:47





@CupcakeProtocol - Yes, it's super intentional. Subelements is looking at the list of tuples that dict2items provides. Each tuple is key, value. That's why I can't name any keys in my variable as "value". Learned this trick from: stackoverflow.com/a/50711744/3201683

– courtlandj
Nov 14 '18 at 15:47













@M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

– courtlandj
Nov 14 '18 at 15:48







@M_dk I don't see how templating is going to help me edit values in existing ini files. And, I don't really think what I am doing is all that "complex", either. I'm just sequentially setting values in some ini files, but I can't use a nice hierarchical data structure to do all the work for me -- I have to duplicate the "section" value unnecessarily all over the place. To me, that is more complex, not less. I cannot imagine writing it this way in any other language.

– courtlandj
Nov 14 '18 at 15:48














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