Use a different task name for Ansible roles execution? - ansible

Question

I have the current node role:
$ tree roles/node
roles/node
├── defaults
│   └── main.yaml
└── tasks
   ├── main.yaml
   ├── reset.yaml
   └── unmount.yaml
Current provisioning.yaml playbook is using the main tasks:
- name: Node Provisioning
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
roles:
- role: node
I would like to create a separate reset.yaml playbook which uses the reset tasks:
- name: Node Reset
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
roles:
- role: node
I understand I could create a separate role or use tags, but my goal is to use the same role name and define into playbook the reset tasks name, instead of main.
Is there a proper solution allowing me to use a specific tasks_from in my playbook scenario? The example above is a simplified playbook, for proof of concept.

Answer 1

There are three ways to include a role in your playbook:
Use the classic roles: directive in the play;
Using the dynamic include_role task
Using the static import_role task
While the roles: directive doesn't support a tasks_from argument, the other two options do. You could write:
- name: Node Reset
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
tasks:
- import_role:
name: node
tasks_from: reset.yaml
Here's a complete test walk-through. If used the following layout:
.
├── playbook.yaml
└── roles
└── node
└── tasks
├── main.yaml
├── reset.yaml
└── umount.yaml
Where roles/node/tasks/reset.yaml contains:
- debug:
msg: "This is reset.yaml"
- name: Umount filesystem
ansible.builtin.include_tasks:
file: umount.yaml
with_items:
- /run/netns
- /var/lib/kubelet
loop_control:
loop_var: mounted_fs
And roles/node/tasks/unmount.yaml contains:
- debug:
msg: "This is umount.yaml; fs: {{ mounted_fs }}"
If I run this playbook.yml:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- import_role:
name: node
tasks_from: reset
I get as output:
PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is reset.yaml"
}
TASK [node : Umount filesystem] ************************************************
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/roles/node/tasks/umount.yaml for localhost => (item=/run/netns)
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/roles/node/tasks/umount.yaml for localhost => (item=/var/lib/kubelet)
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is umount.yaml; fs: /run/netns"
}
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is umount.yaml; fs: /var/lib/kubelet"
}
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost : ok=5 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
You can find my complete test setup here.