Ansible - skip undefined variable in dict - ansible

Question

I`m using ipa_user module to setup users. There is variable passsword which force new password.
For some users (when var is not in dict) I would like to skip it in iteration, but it always fail.
This is snippet from my playbook. Ansible version is 2.7
task:
- name: adding ipa users
ipa_user:
name: "{{ item.value.login }}"
state: "{{ item.value.state }}"
givenname: "{{ item.value.givenname }}"
sn: "{{ item.value.surname }}"
mail: "{{ item.value.mail }}"
telephonenumber: "{{ item.value.telephonenumber }}"
title: "{{ item.value.title }}"
password: "{{ item.value.password }}" <<- to be skipped if not found
ipa_host: ipa.gdi.telekom.de
ipa_user: admin
ipa_pass: "{{ ipa_pass }}"
with_dict: "{{ipausers}}"
when: item.key in ipausers.keys()
register: output_ipa_users
Log:
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'dict object' has no attribute 'password'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/builds/gitlab/infra/user-management/roles/free-ipa/tasks/main.yml': line 13, column 3, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n- name: adding ipa users\n ^ here\n"}
Note: I tried it with:
with_dict: "{{ipausers|default({})}}"
ignore_errors: yes
without success

Answer 1

Not sure if it'll be much help to you now but for others than stumble on this post, I ended up with something like below for a similar problem. I'm using Ansible 2.7.8.
- name: Creating user accounts...
user:
name: "{{ item.name }}"
state: "{{ item.state }}"
comment: "{{ item.comment | default(omit) }}"
group: "{{ item.groups is defined | ternary((item.groups|default([]))[0], omit) }}"
groups: "{{ item.groups | default(omit) }}"
password: "{{ item.password_hash | default(omit) }}"
uid: "{{ item.uid | default(omit) }}"
with_items: "{{ managed_users }}"
The solution is
group: "{{ item.groups is defined | ternary((item.groups|default([]))[0], omit) }}"
If groups isn't in item then Ansible will omit the group part of this tasks but jinja2 will evaluate item.groups[0] anyway. So to allow for this we have to use item.groups|default([]) so jinja2 uses an empty list when groups isn't defined instead of throwing a 'dict object' has no attribute error. The omit part is similar to the default(omit) filter where Ansible simply omits the option from the task.
Lubo's problem is a little simpler so using just default(omit) filter should work. That said as password is required so the entire task should be skipped with a conditional.
- name: adding ipa users
ipa_user:
name: "{{ item.value.login }}"
state: "{{ item.value.state }}"
givenname: "{{ item.value.givenname }}"
sn: "{{ item.value.surname }}"
mail: "{{ item.value.mail }}"
telephonenumber: "{{ item.value.telephonenumber }}"
title: "{{ item.value.title }}"
password: "{{ item.value.password | default(omit) }}" #<-- would be omitted
ipa_host: ipa.gdi.telekom.de
ipa_user: admin
ipa_pass: "{{ ipa_pass }}"
with_dict: "{{ipausers}}"
when: item.key in ipausers.keys() and item.key.password is defined #<-- second check for when password is not defined.
register: output_ipa_users

Answer 2

If you want to completely skip the ipa_user module execution when password is not defined, check for its presence in your when clause:
when: item.value.password | default('') | length > 0
If you want to execute the ipa_user module without specifying a password for user if it does not exists, use the omit placeholder in your module params:
password: "{{ item.value.password | default(omit) }}"
Note: your current when clause can be removed. It will always return true as you are looping over a dict and later checking if the current key in the loop is part of that dict.

Answer 3

There is a special omit variable to omit module parameters.
password: "{{ item.value.password|default(omit) }}"
To make a playbook or a role reusable it is a good idea to declare all parameters of a module in the task and default(omit) parameters that are not required.