Ansible: Check a list and If found, delete an item or items - ansible

Question

I have a playbook that will run on lots of servers and on some of them, there are directories that need to be deleted. I could create a task for each server and the directories and use when inventory_hostname=XXXX but the problem is that the locations are unique along with the servers that they are on, so there would be over 300 such tasks and the output of the playbook will be swamped with all of the skips.
I thought about putting the list into defaults/main.yml, something like
vars:
server.eur.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir
- /path/to/other/dir
servera.nam.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dira
server2.apac.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir2
- /path/to/other/dir2
and then have a task to consume the list, something like
- name: delete dir
command: rm -rf {{ item }}
with_items: {{ vars }}
when: item.key = "inventory_hostname"
But I can’t make it work.

Answer 1

This kind of task have to be achieved with the help of your inventory.
For example, with the inventory:
all:
children:
nodes:
hosts:
server1.example.org:
folder_to_delete:
- /path/to/folder1
- /path/to/folder2
server2.example.org:
folder_to_delete:
- /path/to/folder3
- /path/to/folder4
server3.example.org:
folder_to_delete:
- /path/to/folder5
- /path/to/folder6
And the playbook:
- hosts: nodes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- file:
path: "{{ item }}"
state: absent
loop: "{{ folder_to_delete | default([]) }}"
We can see that the correct folders are deleted on their own nodes and that the task gives a correct feedback — ok when the folder is already absent; changed when the folder was indeed deleted:
TASK [file] **************************************************************
changed: [server1.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder1)
ok: [server3.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder5)
ok: [server2.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder3)
changed: [server1.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder2)
changed: [server3.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder6)
ok: [server2.example.org] => (item=/path/to/folder4)
Also, by empty list as default, you could avoid having to define the variable folder_to_delete for nodes that do not need any clean up.

Answer 2

Put the dictionary into vars
folder_to_delete:
server.eur.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir
- /path/to/other/dir
servera.nam.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dira
server2.apac.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir2
- /path/to/other/dir2
Use it in the task
- name: delete dir
debug:
msg: "command: rm -rf {{ item }}"
loop: "{{ folder_to_delete[inventory_hostname]|d([]) }}"
Given the inventory
shell> cat hosts
server.eur.fqdn.net
servera.nam.fqdn.net
server2.apac.fqdn.net
foo.bar.net
Example of a complete playbook for testing
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: all
vars:
folder_to_delete:
server.eur.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir
- /path/to/other/dir
servera.nam.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dira
server2.apac.fqdn.net:
- /path/to/dir2
- /path/to/other/dir2
tasks:
- name: delete dir
debug:
msg: "command: rm -rf {{ item }}"
loop: "{{ folder_to_delete[inventory_hostname]|d([]) }}"
gives
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml
PLAY [all] ***********************************************************************************
TASK [delete dir] ****************************************************************************
ok: [server.eur.fqdn.net] => (item=/path/to/dir) =>
msg: 'command: rm -rf /path/to/dir'
ok: [server.eur.fqdn.net] => (item=/path/to/other/dir) =>
msg: 'command: rm -rf /path/to/other/dir'
ok: [servera.nam.fqdn.net] => (item=/path/to/dira) =>
msg: 'command: rm -rf /path/to/dira'
skipping: [foo.bar.net]
ok: [server2.apac.fqdn.net] => (item=/path/to/dir2) =>
msg: 'command: rm -rf /path/to/dir2'
ok: [server2.apac.fqdn.net] => (item=/path/to/other/dir2) =>
msg: 'command: rm -rf /path/to/other/dir2'
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
foo.bar.net: ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=1 rescued=0 ignored=0
server.eur.fqdn.net: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
server2.apac.fqdn.net: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
servera.nam.fqdn.net : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0