How to override some specific variables values in Ansible playbook - ansible

Question

I have some multiple war files which I am downloading from nexus and creating the respective app folder on my remote host and copying the files.
Now there are 2 files which have a different name as war file but need to create a directory with different name. What I am doing right now is this -
- name: Ensuring the web deployment folder is created on tomcat nodes for each web application
file:
path: "{{tomcat_server_release_location}}/Release{{my_release_version}}/{{item}}"
state: directory
mode: 0777
with_items:
- "{{ apps }}"
- name: Copying the release from Admin server to tomcat nodes
copy: src={{admin_server_release_location}}/{{my_release_version}}/{{item}}-{{my_release_version}}.war dest={{tomcat_server_release_location}}/Release{{my_release_version}}/{{item}}
with_items:
- "{{ apps }}"
apps variable is defined like this -
webapps: ['test1','test2','test3','test4'].
Now test2 has a different name on the nexus it says test2-web.war but on the remote node I have to create a folder called just test2 and copy the war file in there.
Is there a way to override some variables at run time of playbook by using some condition or anything

Answer 1

If you want to override at runtime use extra vars.
From the docs --extra-vars "version=1.23.45"
Don't use conditions if you know a specific host should always be overwritten. I think placing it as a host var is best.
hosts:
myhost:
apps:
- test1
- trst2
See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_variables.html#variable-precedence-where-should-i-put-a-variable for all of the various locations you can put variables and how to determine which will be used

Answer 2

It is possible to override variables by doing something like this:
- name: copy war
copy:
src: "{{ src_war | default('/path/to/my/war') }}"
dest: "{{ dest_war | default(src_war) }}"
Then at runtime you can set the variables src_war and dest_war either with extra vars, host/group_vars or any other way documented here: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_variables.html
In your case I think it would be helpful to set a src & dest mapping:
- set_fact:
apps:
- {src: "test1"}
- {src: "test2", dest: "test2-web"}
- {src: "test3"}
- {src: "test4"}
Then you can use this mapping to achieve your goal:
- name: Ensuring the web deployment...
file:
path: {{ tomcat_server_release_location }}/Release{{ my_release_version }}/{{ item.src }}
state: directory
mode: 0777
with_items: "{{ apps }}"
- name: Copying the release...
copy:
src: "{{ admin_server_release_location }}/{{ my_release_version }}/{{ item.src }}-{{ my_release_version }}.war"
dest: "{{ tomcat_server_release_location }}/Release{{ my_release_version }}/{{ item.dest | default(item.src) }}"
with_items: "{{ apps }}"