ansible_facts.packages "skipping" my package check - ansible

Question

I would like to check if my package is installed, but I would like to have all package types with a name.
Let me explain: I am looking for the OB2 package, but there are plenty of them, so I am looking for OB2* but it skips my search.
I tested with the name without wildcard (*) but it doesn't work any better:
- name: Gather the package facts
ansible.builtin.package_facts:
manager: auto
- name: Print the package facts
ansible.builtin.debug:
var: ansible_facts.packages
- name: Check whether a package called OB2 is installed
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "{{ ansible_facts.packages['OB2*'] | length }} versions of OB2are installed!"
when: "'OB2*' in ansible_facts.packages"
Is there a solution to find all outputs that start with OB2 within ansible_facts.package?

Answer 1

ansible_facts.packages is a dictionary. There are no keys in that dictionary named OB2* nor OB2 since no package has this exact name.
If you want to get all keys which names start with the string "OB2", one way is to filter out all others.
Transform you dict to a key/value list with the dict2items filter
Use the selectattr filter and apply the match test to find the relevant entries.
Since the key name is also contained in the parameter name inside each element in the value list , you can retain only the value using the map(attribute='someattr') filter
Last, flatten the list to get one single list containing all packages version
Here is a playbook illustrating the concept. For the example, I used as a prefix "zlib". Just change it back to whatever suits your needs
---
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
package_prefix: "zlib"
filtered_packages: "{{ ansible_facts.packages | dict2items
| selectattr('key', 'match', package_prefix)
| map(attribute='value') | flatten }}"
tasks:
- name: gather package facts
ansible.builtin.package_facts:
- name: debug the raw variable
debug:
var: filtered_packages
- name: count relevant packages
vars:
pkg_num: "{{ filtered_packages | count }}"
debug:
msg: "There are {{ pkg_num }} packages
which name starts with {{ package_prefix }}"
- name: show some info about relevant packages
debug:
msg: "Package named {{ item.name }} is in category {{ item.category }}
and has version {{ item.version }}"
loop: "{{ filtered_packages }}"
Which gives on my Ubuntu local machine:
PLAY [localhost] *****************************************************************************************************************
TASK [gather package facts] ******************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug the raw variable] ****************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"filtered_packages": [
{
"arch": "amd64",
"category": "libs",
"name": "zlib1g",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3"
},
{
"arch": "amd64",
"category": "libdevel",
"name": "zlib1g-dev",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3"
}
]
}
TASK [count relevant packages] ***************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "There are 2 packages which name starts with zlib"
}
TASK [show some info about relevant packages] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item={'name': 'zlib1g', 'version': '1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3', 'arch': 'amd64', 'category': 'libs', 'origin': 'Ubuntu', 'source': 'apt'}) => {
"msg": "Package named zlib1g is in category libs and has version 1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={'name': 'zlib1g-dev', 'version': '1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3', 'arch': 'amd64', 'category': 'libdevel', 'origin': 'Ubuntu', 'source': 'apt'}) => {
"msg": "Package named zlib1g-dev is in category libdevel and has version 1:1.2.11.dfsg-2ubuntu1.3"
}
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=4 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

Answer 2

You have to filter the keys, a direct address is not possible, because you don't know the exact name.
- name: Gather the package facts
ansible.builtin.package_facts:
- name: Filter package names
set_fact:
filtered_package_names: "{{ ansible_facts.packages | list
| map('regex_search', '^vim.*') | select('string') | list }}"
- name: Print filtered packages
debug:
var: filtered_package_names
- name: Print package details from all filtered packages
debug:
msg: "{{ ansible_facts.packages[item] }}"
with_items: "{{ filtered_package_names }}"
With list a list of the keys is created, then you can filter this list with regex_search, afterwards the list is reduced to the filter result.
== Edit begin
There is a smarter filter method. Instead of using map(regex_search) / select(string), you could use directly select(match), so the filtering would look like:
- name: Filter package names
set_fact:
filtered_package_names: "{{ ansible_facts.packages | list
| select('match', '^vim.*') | list }}"
== Edit end
The result is a list of package names that match your regex.
If you need more information about one of the packages, you can then use ansible_facts.packages[_your_item] to get the rest of the information.
Example output of the above tasks:
TASK [Gather the package facts] ****************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Filter package names] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Print filtered packages] *****************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"filtered_package_names": [
"vim",
"vim-common",
"vim-runtime",
"vim-tiny"
]
}
TASK [Print package details] *******************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=vim) => {
"msg": [
{
"arch": "amd64",
"category": "editors",
"name": "vim",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.7"
}
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=vim-common) => {
"msg": [
{
"arch": "all",
"category": "editors",
"name": "vim-common",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.7"
}
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=vim-runtime) => {
"msg": [
{
"arch": "all",
"category": "editors",
"name": "vim-runtime",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.7"
}
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=vim-tiny) => {
"msg": [
{
"arch": "amd64",
"category": "editors",
"name": "vim-tiny",
"origin": "Ubuntu",
"source": "apt",
"version": "2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.7"
}
]
}