Ansible - Getting List Values from within a Dictionary (Regsiter Variable) - ansible

Question

So I'm working on some audit points using Ansible for many of the servers we support. In most cases, I have had to use the shell modules to get the data I want and then write some files based on pass/fail cases. In a lot of situations, this has been the easier way to work with the output data. First, I realize this isn't necessarily Ansible's forte. I guess at some point it was pitched to the company that it could do this pretty easily, and I would agree - it's easier in many ways than just writing a custom python/BASH script to do the same. So - I do realize I'm bending the concept of Ansible a bit here for reporting, rather than configuration/state management. However; I like the tool and want to show the company we can get a lot of value from it.
While I could do this section easily using the shell module, I would like to learn Ansible a bit better. So thought I would post this question.
I'm using the Yum module to just get a repolist on the target hosts. But I've been running into confusion on just how to extract the list values nested in the output dictionary. I have done some checking on the types and as far as I can tell - the 'results' variable is a dictionary, with the output in in a list. What I want to do, is get the key/values from the list and then perform some other tasks based on that output. But for the life of me - I can't figure out how to do this!
Ideally - I would like to either use some 'when' module statements based on the output (When the repo ID is.. do this.. for example) or at least be able to store them in a variable to work with the data. So from this output, I just want to get the repoid and if it's enabled. How can I get these values from the nested list?
Simple Playbook:
---
- hosts: localhost
become: yes
tasks:
- name: Section 1.1 - Check Yum Repos
yum:
list: repos
register: section1_1
- name: Debug
debug:
var: section1_1
Here is my output from the debug task in this playbook:
TASK [Debug] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"section1_1": {
"changed": false,
"failed": false,
"results": [
{
"repoid": "ansible",
"state": "enabled"
},
{
"repoid": "epel",
"state": "enabled"
},
{
"repoid": "ol7_UEKR6",
"state": "enabled"
},
{
"repoid": "ol7_latest",
"state": "enabled"
}
]
}
}
I suspect this might be easy for someone out there. I've been trying this and that's for quite a while now and finally got to the point where I thought I would just ask :)

Answer 1

As the output of registered in section1_1 is a list of dictionaries. We can loop through each item, to get the dictionary keys.
Example:
- name: Get the first repo's repoid and state
debug:
msg: "Repo ID: {{ results[0]['repoid'] }}, is {{ results[0]['state'] }}"
# This will show -- Repo ID: ansible, is enabled
Similarly we can access other elements with their number.
Or we can loop through each element of array:
- name: loop through array and conditionally do something
debug:
msg: "Repo ID is {{ item.repoid }}, so I am going to write a playbook."
when: item.repoid == 'ansible'
loop: "{{ results }}"

Answer 2

Q: "Get the key/values from the list."
A: There are more options. Given the data below
section1_1:
changed: false
failed: false
results:
- repoid: ansible
state: enabled
- repoid: epel
state: enabled
- repoid: ol7_UEKR6
state: enabled
- repoid: ol7_latest
state: enabled
- repoid: test
state: disabled
1a) Get the keys and values, and create a dictionary
_keys1: "{{ section1_1.results|map(attribute='repoid')|list }}"
_vals1: "{{ section1_1.results|map(attribute='state')|list }}"
repos1: "{{ dict(_keys1|zip(_vals1)) }}"
gives
_keys1: [ansible, epel, ol7_UEKR6, ol7_latest, test]
_vals1: [enabled, enabled, enabled, enabled, disabled]
repos1:
ansible: enabled
epel: enabled
ol7_UEKR6: enabled
ol7_latest: enabled
test: disabled
1b) The filter items2dict gives the same result
repos2: "{{ section1_1.results|
items2dict(key_name='repoid', value_name='state') }}"
1c) The filter json_query gives also the same result
repos3: "{{ dict(section1_1.results|
json_query('[].[repoid, state]')) }}"
Iterate the dictionary
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is {{ item.value }}"
loop: "{{ repos1|dict2items }}"
gives (abridged)
msg: Repo ansible is enabled
msg: Repo epel is enabled
msg: Repo ol7_UEKR6 is enabled
msg: Repo ol7_latest is enabled
msg: Repo test is disabled
The next option is the conversion of the values to boolean
_vals4: "{{ section1_1.results|
json_query('[].state.contains(#, `enabled`)') }}"
repos4: "{{ dict(_keys1|zip(_vals4)) }}"
gives
_vals4: [true, true, true, true, false]
repos4:
ansible: true
epel: true
ol7_UEKR6: true
ol7_latest: true
test: false
Iterate the dictionary
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is enabled: {{ item.value }}"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items }}"
gives (abridged)
msg: 'Repo ansible is enabled: True'
msg: 'Repo epel is enabled: True'
msg: 'Repo ol7_UEKR6 is enabled: True'
msg: 'Repo ol7_latest is enabled: True'
msg: 'Repo test is enabled: False'
3a) The list of the enabled repos can be easily selected
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is enabled"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items|selectattr('value') }}"
gives (abridged)
msg: Repo ansible is enabled
msg: Repo epel is enabled
msg: Repo ol7_UEKR6 is enabled
msg: Repo ol7_latest is enabled
3b), or rejected
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is disabled"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items|rejectattr('value') }}"
gives (abridged)
msg: Repo test is disabled
Example of a complete playbook for testing
- hosts: localhost
vars:
section1_1:
changed: false
failed: false
results:
- {repoid: ansible, state: enabled}
- {repoid: epel, state: enabled}
- {repoid: ol7_UEKR6, state: enabled}
- {repoid: ol7_latest, state: enabled}
- {repoid: test, state: disabled}
_keys1: "{{ section1_1.results|map(attribute='repoid')|list }}"
_vals1: "{{ section1_1.results|map(attribute='state')|list }}"
repos1: "{{ dict(_keys1|zip(_vals1)) }}"
repos2: "{{ section1_1.results|
items2dict(key_name='repoid', value_name='state') }}"
repos3: "{{ dict(section1_1.results|
json_query('[].[repoid, state]')) }}"
_vals4: "{{ section1_1.results|
json_query('[].state.contains(#, `enabled`)') }}"
repos4: "{{ dict(_keys1|zip(_vals4)) }}"
tasks:
- debug:
var: section1_1
- debug:
var: _keys1|to_yaml
- debug:
var: _vals1|to_yaml
- debug:
var: repos1
- debug:
var: repos2
- debug:
var: repos3
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is {{ item.value }}"
loop: "{{ repos1|dict2items }}"
- debug:
var: _vals4|to_yaml
- debug:
var: repos4
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is enabled: {{ item.value }}"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items }}"
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is enabled"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items|selectattr('value') }}"
- debug:
msg: "Repo {{ item.key }} is disabled"
loop: "{{ repos4|dict2items|rejectattr('value') }}"