Ansible: variable in variable / loop or iterating through item - ansible

Question

Here is a simple vars file we have to debug
./roles/test/vars/{{ ansible_distribution|lower }}/apt-packages.yml
packages:
required:
- htop
# - aptitude
package:
htop:
allow_unauthenticated: no
autoclean: no
autoremove: no
cache_valid_time: 0
# default_release:
force: no
force_apt_get: no
install_recommends: yes
only_upgrade: no
purge: no
state: latest
update_cache: yes
upgrade: no
Here is a simple task to debug
./roles/test/tasks/main.yml
- name: "Register variable"
include_vars:
#dir: vars/ubuntu
file: "vars/{{ ansible_distribution|lower }}/apt-packages.yml"
name: apt_install
- name: "This a test"
apt:
name: "{{item}}"
cache_valid_time: "{{ apt_install.package[item].cache_valid_time }}"
state: "{{ apt_install.package[item].state }}"
update_cache: "{{ apt_install.package[item].update_cache }}"
with_items: "{{ apt_install.packages.required }}"
./roles/test-playbook.yml
- name: "playbook test"
hosts: localhost
roles:
- role: test
become: true
become_user: root
become_method: sudo
using following answer stackoverflow.com/questions/29276198 we are trying to loop through items and get item related values.
Tasks is looping well through items but it is impossible to retrieve related variable with [item] syntax or any other one we have tested.
We have always the same error
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: dict object has no element [u'htop']
But calling directly the variable works
- name: "echo variable test"
debug:
msg: "{{ apt_install.package.htop.allow_unauthenticated }}"
What is the right syntax to get current loop value of a variable and use it inside another variable to retrieve related value ... (inside the same task) ?
So far it's we who are going around in circles without end !
Kind Regards

Answer 1

This is fully working using a loop / loop_control instead of with_items
- name: "This a test"
apt:
name: "{{item}}"
cache_valid_time: "{{ apt_install.package[item].cache_valid_time }}"
state: "{{ apt_install.package[item].state }}"
update_cache: "{{ apt_install.package[item].update_cache }}"
loop: "{{ apt_install.packages.required|flatten(levels=1) }}"
loop_control:
index_var: index
So as it we can define different settings for each package and for each distrib.
Now I can export too settings for each package in different var files.
Learning is hard :)