Ansible - loop tasks one by one based on list - ansible

Question

Imagine this playbook:
---
- hosts: my_host
gather_facts: false
vars:
mylist:
- abc
- def
- xyz
tasks:
- name: dummy task 1
shell: "echo 'task 1 {{ item }}'"
loop: "{{ my_list }}"
- name: dummy task 2
shell: "echo 'task 2 {{ item }}'"
loop: "{{ my_list }}"
Would it be possible to let Ansible loop over the tasks, one by one, based on the items defined in mylist?
The desired result would be:
task 1 abc
task 2 abc
task 1 def
task 2 def
task 1 xyz
task 2 xyz

Answer 1

Place the tasks in a separate file (e.g., tasks.yaml) and then loop over an include_tasks task.
If we have a file tasks.yaml with this content:
- name: task1
debug:
msg: "task 1 {{ item }}"
- name: task2
debug:
msg: "task 2 {{ item }}"
And playbook.yaml with this content:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- include_tasks: tasks.yaml
loop:
- abc
- def
- xyz
Then running ansible-playbook playbook.yaml produces as output:
PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
TASK [include_tasks] ***********************************************************
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/tasks.yaml for localhost => (item=abc)
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/tasks.yaml for localhost => (item=def)
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/tasks.yaml for localhost => (item=xyz)
TASK [task1] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 1 abc"
}
TASK [task2] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 2 abc"
}
TASK [task1] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 1 def"
}
TASK [task2] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 2 def"
}
TASK [task1] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 1 xyz"
}
TASK [task2] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "task 2 xyz"
}
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost : ok=9 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0