Ansible Substring From List Item - ansible

Question

To keep this simple, I have one whitelist directory, one directory being passed in. I need to make sure the full directory of "/tmp/dir1/dir2" FAILS, where a directory of "/local/web/dir1" SUCCEEDS.
This code, always says it's good. No matter what I pass. What am I missing?
EDIT
First of all {{ dir }} is passed in, it's all running under AaaS. Data passed in looks like:
should succeed:
/local/web/test1/dir1
should fail:
/home/test
ansible-playbook-yml
---
- name: Generate Directory Structure and by list.
hosts: target_hosts
vars:
dir: {{ dir }}
whitelist_dir:
- "/local/web"
tasks:
- name: Validate Search {{ dir }}
debug:
msg: "directory is good!"
when: item is search(dir)
with_items:
- "{{ whitelist_dir }}"

Answer 1

Following your edit and my last comment, the only real problem I see is that you reversed your parameters in your where clause (although it does not explain IMO why it would always succeed...).
If I check with parameters in the right order, I get the result you expect. I even added a second whitelist path in the following MCVE to make sure your loop was working correctly. The following test.yml playbook
---
- name: Check if directory is in whitelist path
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars_prompt:
- name: dir
prompt: Type in full path you want to check
private: no
vars:
whitelist_dir:
- "/local/web"
- "/toto/pipo"
tasks:
- name: Validate Search {{ dir }}
debug:
msg: "directory is good!"
when: dir is search(item)
with_items:
- "{{ whitelist_dir }}"
Gives (3 differents tests)
$ ansible-playbook test.yml
Type in full path you want to check: /local/web/test1/dir1
PLAY [Check if directory is in whitelist path] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Validate Search /local/web/test1/dir1] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=/local/web) => {
"msg": "directory is good!"
}
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/toto/pipo)
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
$ ansible-playbook test.yml
Type in full path you want to check: /home/test
PLAY [Check if directory is in whitelist path] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Validate Search /home/test] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/local/web)
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/toto/pipo)
skipping: [localhost]
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=1 rescued=0 ignored=0
$ ansible-playbook test.yml
Type in full path you want to check: /toto/pipo/test.txt
PLAY [Check if directory is in whitelist path] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Validate Search /toto/pipo/test.txt] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost] => (item=/local/web)
ok: [localhost] => (item=/toto/pipo) => {
"msg": "directory is good!"
}
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0