Ansible: how to print var name while looping? - ansible

Question

I have this inside setup/tasks/apps.yml:
- name: Mac App Store | Install apps.
shell: mas list | grep {{ item.id }} || mas install {{ item.id }}
with_items: "{{ mac_store_apps }}"
register: result
changed_when: result.stdout.find('Installed') != -1
I know I can use:
loop_control:
label: '{{ item.name }}'
But I want to print something like:
Attempting to Install {{ item.name }}
before each execution. How can that be done?

Answer 1

There is no way to generate output before each iteration of your loop; Ansible only produces output when a task (or an iteration of a looping task) is complete. If you are concerned that package installation can take a while and you want to provide some feedback, you could just print out a notice in advance, as in:
- debug:
msg: "Note: package installation may take several minutes to complete"
You can sort of get what you want by placing your install task in a separate file, and then calling include_tasks in a loop. For example, if we have the following playbook:
---
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
mac_store_apps:
- name: foo
- name: bar
- name: baz
- name: qux
tasks:
- name: "Mac App Store | Install apps."
include_tasks: ./install.yml
with_items: "{{ mac_store_apps }}"
- debug:
var: all_results
And the following tasks in install.yml:
---
- name: "Mac App Store | Install {{ item.name }}"
shell: "true"
register: result
- name: Store result
set_fact:
all_results: "{{ all_results|default([]) + [{'item': item, 'result': result}] }}"
We will see as output:
PLAY [localhost] ******************************************************************************
TASK [Mac App Store | Install apps.] **********************************************************
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/install.yml for localhost => (item={u'name': u'foo'})
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/install.yml for localhost => (item={u'name': u'bar'})
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/install.yml for localhost => (item={u'name': u'baz'})
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/install.yml for localhost => (item={u'name': u'qux'})
TASK [Mac App Store | Install foo] ************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [Store result] ***************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Mac App Store | Install bar] ************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [Store result] ***************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Mac App Store | Install baz] ************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [Store result] ***************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Mac App Store | Install qux] ************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [Store result] ***************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"all_results": [
{
"item": {
"name": "foo"
},
"result": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": "true",
"delta": "0:00:00.002398",
"end": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.146497",
"failed": false,
"rc": 0,
"start": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.144099",
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": []
}
},
{
"item": {
"name": "bar"
},
"result": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": "true",
"delta": "0:00:00.002245",
"end": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.285859",
"failed": false,
"rc": 0,
"start": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.283614",
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": []
}
},
{
"item": {
"name": "baz"
},
"result": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": "true",
"delta": "0:00:00.002406",
"end": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.426909",
"failed": false,
"rc": 0,
"start": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.424503",
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": []
}
},
{
"item": {
"name": "qux"
},
"result": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": "true",
"delta": "0:00:00.002232",
"end": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.574214",
"failed": false,
"rc": 0,
"start": "2019-04-23 11:19:25.571982",
"stderr": "",
"stderr_lines": [],
"stdout": "",
"stdout_lines": []
}
}
]
}
PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=13 changed=4 unreachable=0 failed=0