Ansible loop dict items - ansible

Question

I am using ansible 2.9 and trying to use ansible loop instead of with_dict. I am getting below error. I need to pass the values at the task, I can't keep them in variable or load them at the beginning. do I need to switch back to with_dict?
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "template error while templating string: expected token 'end of print statement', got ':'. String: {{ key:/var/tmp/h vaule:/tmp/h|dict2items }}"}
- name: copy module
copy:
src: "{{ item.key }}"
dest: "{{ item.value}}"
loop:
- "{{ key: /var/tmp/a value:/tmp/h |dict2items }}"
- "{{ key: /var/tmp/b value:/tmp/z |dict2items }}"

Answer 1

You don't need dict2items here. Fix the syntax. For example, test it first
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- debug:
msg: >-
src: {{ item.key }}
dest: {{ item.value}}
loop:
- {key: /var/tmp/a, value: /tmp/h}
- {key: /var/tmp/b, value: /tmp/z}
gives (abridged)
msg: 'src: /var/tmp/a dest: /tmp/h'
msg: 'src: /var/tmp/b dest: /tmp/z'
If this is what you want to copy the files
- name: copy module
copy:
src: "{{ item.key }}"
dest: "{{ item.value }}"
loop:
- {key: /var/tmp/a, value: /tmp/h}
- {key: /var/tmp/b, value: /tmp/z}
You'd need dict2items if the structure was a dictionary. For example,
dirs:
/var/tmp/a: /tmp/h
/var/tmp/b: /tmp/z
Then the task below would give the same result
- debug:
msg: >-
src: {{ item.key }}
dest: {{ item.value}}
loop: "{{ dirs|dict2items }}"