Ansible: any file from dictionary - ansible

Question

Today I totally broke my brain with that. I have some structure with dictionary files and I need to make some text or json with variables which uses in dictionary:
> hosts_vars
varfile.yaml
> inventory
hosts.yml
tasks.yml
varfile.yaml
host_vars:
host1: { ip: 192.168.1.1 }
host2: { ip: 192.168.1.2 }
hosts.yml
all:
hosts:
host1:
ansible_host: 192.168.1.1
host2:
ansible_host: 192.168.1.2
tasks.yml
- hosts: all
become: no
gather_facts: false
vars_files:
- hosts_vars/varfile.yaml
vars:
temp_file: /tmp/out_file.txt
tasks:
- local_action:
module: ansible.builtin.lineinfile
path: '{{ temp_file }}'
line: |
- targets: ['{{ host_vars[inventory_hostname].ip }}']
state: present
When I run it: ansible-playbook tasks.yml -l all
I got:
~> cat /tmp/out_file.txt
- targets: ['192.168.1.1']
I didn't understand why it happened. When if I had 60 hosts I'll got ~54 lines in file. How it works?

Answer 1

You need to create the file in localhost and delegate the task to localhost looping hosts.
tasks:
- name: update host
lineinfile:
path: '{{ temp_file }}'
create: yes
line: |
- targets: ['{{ host_vars[item].ip }}'] # or ['{{ host_vars[item]['ip'] }}']
insertafter: EOF
delegate_to: localhost
run_once: true
with_inventory_hostnames:
- all

Answer 2

For example
tasks:
- ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: yes
path: "{{ temp_file }}"
line: "- targets: ['{{ host_vars[inventory_hostname].ip }}']"
delegate_to: localhost
gives
shell> cat /tmp/out_file.txt
- targets: ['192.168.1.2']
- targets: ['192.168.1.1']
Notes:
Don't use Yaml Literal Style block with line. It says what it is. You don't want any newlines \n in the line. If you for whatever reason have to use the block put dash - behind the pipe |. This will remove the trailing newline \n
- ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: true
path: "{{ temp_file }}"
line: |-
- targets: ['{{ host_vars[inventory_hostname].ip }}']
delegate_to: localhost
You can use delegate_to: localhost instead of local_action
Use create: yes. It is no by default and the task will fail Destination /tmp/out_file.txt does not exist ! if the file doesn't exist.
state: present is default
insertafter: EOF is default
Putting varfile.yaml into the directory host_vars is missing the point how host_vars work. There is no host with the name varfile. You should put the file, e.g. into vars/varfile.yaml instead.
The variable host_vars is redundant. The IP of the hosts is stored in the variable ansible_host. The task below gives the same result
- ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: true
path: "{{ temp_file }}"
line: "- targets: ['{{ ansible_host }}']"
delegate_to: localhost
If you'd like to create a list of all IP addresses the task below
- ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: true
path: "{{ temp_file }}"
line: "- targets: {{ ansible_play_hosts_all|
map('extract', hostvars, 'ansible_host') }}"
run_once: true
delegate_to: localhost
gives
shell> cat /tmp/out_file.txt
- targets: ['192.168.1.1', '192.168.1.2']

Answer 3

macOS with ansible [core 2.11.2] had issue with write files in /tmp If you want to use this you need to set the home folder or any other folder with root permissions.