how does one combine conditionals into one "when" statement? - ansible

Question

Ansible 2.10.x
I looked at How to define multiple when conditions in Ansible, and similar posts.
I'm trying to test if 2 different substring are in a variable. I've tried
default/main.yml
----------------
# Default path can be overridden in task
repo_url: "https://someUrl/development"
tasks/main.yml
--------------
- debug:
msg: "URL={{ repo_url }}"
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: ('"development" not in web_version') and
('"feature" not in web_version')
- debug:
msg: "URL={{ repo_url }}"
I use above task like this for example
$ ansible-playbook ... -e web_version=development_ myTask.yml
But I get
TASK [exa-web : debug] *************************************************
ok: [10.227.x.x] => {
"msg": "URL=https://someUrl/development"
}
TASK [exa-web : Override default path] *************************************************
ok: [10.227.x.x]
TASK [exa-web : debug] *************************************************
ok: [10.227.x.x] => {
"msg": "URL=https://someUrl/releases"
}
I don't expect the set_fact task to run, but it does; hence it overrides the default repo_url. So apparently I'm setting my when condition wrong.
I've also tried this to no avail.
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: '"development_" not in web_version and
"feature_" not in web_version'
Essentially, I need the task to run if I execute my playbook like this
$ ansible-playbook ... -e web_version=1.4.44 myTask.yml
What's the correct syntax? TIA
UPDATE
Seems like when doesn't like ()? I just simplified the condition for now, and this works
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: '"development" not in web_version'
but not this?
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: ('"development" not in web_version')
Really???

Answer 1

Your second attempt...
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: '"development_" not in web_version and
"feature_" not in web_version'
...seems syntactically correct. In a playbook like this:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/development"
tasks:
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: '"development_" not in web_version and
"feature_" not in web_version'
- debug:
msg: "URL={{ repo_url }}"
If we run it like this:
ansible-playbook -e web_version=development_ playbook.yaml
We see as output:
TASK [Override default path] ****************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]
TASK [debug] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "URL=https://someUrl/development"
}
And if we run it like this:
ansible-playbook -e web_version=1.4.44 playbook.yaml
We see:
TASK [Override default path] ****************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "URL=https://someUrl/releases"
}
That seems to do exactly what you want. Note that you're looking for the string development_ (with a trailing underscore) in your when statement, rather than development as in the first example, but that's an easy fix.
While your code works just fine, I find it helpful to use one of YAML's quote operators for writing multi-line when statements, since it avoids me getting confused by nested quotes in the expression:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/development"
tasks:
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: >-
"development_" not in web_version and
"feature_" not in web_version
- debug:
msg: "URL={{ repo_url }}"
Re: your update, this doesn't work...
- name: Override default path
set_fact:
repo_url: "https://someUrl/releases"
when: ('"development" not in web_version')
...because of bad quoting. You are effectively writing:
when: ("a string")
And a non-empty string evaluates as true in a boolean expression. Always put the quotes at the beginning of the expression. E.g., this works just fine:
when: >-
("development" not in web_version)
As does the syntactically identical:
when: '("development" not in web_version)'