How to include files one by one using dictionary key in ansible? - ansible

Question

I am trying to invoke test cases one by one from ansible. Each test case is written in a yml file.
---
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- set_fact:
k8s_tests:
san-1.yml: "Scale replica to 1"
san-2.yml: "Scale replica to 2"
- name: display local tests
debug: var=k8s_tests
- include: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
vars:
local_test: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
with_items: "{{ k8s_tests }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: k8s_test_item
When i execute it , the order of the file is wrong.
The include should be running in the order of san-1.yml first then san-2.yml
but it was opposite.
TASK [include] *********************************************************************************
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-2.yml for localhost
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-1.yml for localhost
So i added dictsort to sort the dictionary.
- include: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
vars:
local_test: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
with_items: "{{ k8s_tests | dictsort }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: k8s_test_item
but it tries to include both key and value and fails.
TASK [include] *********************************************************************************
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-1.yml for localhost
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Could not find or access '/root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/Scale replica to 1' on the Ansible Controller."}
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-2.yml for localhost
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Could not find or access '/root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/Scale replica to 2' on the Ansible Controller."}
The values 'Scale replica to 1' and 'Scale replica to 2' are not files and they should not be included. I tried to sort by key but still it tries to include based on value as well and fails.
- include: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
vars:
local_test: "{{ k8s_test_item }}"
with_items: "{{ k8s_tests | dictsort(false,'key') }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: k8s_test_item
below is the same output
TASK [include] *********************************************************************************
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-1.yml for localhost
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Could not find or access '/root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/Scale replica to 1' on the Ansible Controller."}
included: /root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/san-2.yml for localhost
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Could not find or access '/root/oc310/jenkinsrun/containers/K8S/Scale replica to 2' on the Ansible Controller."}
I need to include the file in order one by one. How to achieve this?

Answer 1

Here is a solution to make sure your file names are always sorted correctly. You need to:
Transform your dictionary to a list with the dict2items filter
Extract only the key attribute for each element in the list with the map filter
sort the resulting list
Below is an implementation with a debug to show each described steps.
Notes:
I had to reverse the order in var declaration to get the same initial result as yours and have a successful demo
loop is the new keyword for defining loops and is equivalent here to with_list. See loop documentation
---
- name: Looping demo
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
k8s_tests:
san-2.yml: "Scale replica to 2"
san-1.yml: "Scale replica to 1"
tasks:
- name: Show initial var
debug:
var: k8s_tests
- name: Show transforming dict to list
debug:
msg: "{{ k8s_tests | dict2items }}"
- name: Show attribute extraction
debug:
msg: "{{ k8s_tests | dict2items | map(attribute='key') | list }}"
- name: Show final sorted result
debug:
msg: "{{ k8s_tests | dict2items | map(attribute='key') | sort }}"
- name: Actually looping over the data
debug:
var: item
loop: "{{ k8s_tests | dict2items | map(attribute='key') | sort }}"