registering stat result with_items doing task if stat result exists - ansible

Question

I am new to ansible and have exhausted my forum searches. I cannot seem to find an answer for this issue I am having with with_items and when. The playbook as it is now will run, but it results in failed messages "src file does not exist" for every path in the list that does not exist on that machine.
Since, this is being run against several machines, that's a lot of failed (red) messages that mean nothing. I thought the when statement would only run the task IF the statresult existed. This is not the case.
Basically what I am trying to do is check several machines to see if these two paths exist. If they do, create a symlink for each one. All the paths to check in are different. Right now I have:
---
- hosts: all
become: yes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: Check that domains exist
stat:
path: '/path/to/the/domain/{{ item.domainpath }}'
get_attributes: no
get_checksum: no
get_md5: no
get_mime: no
register: item.statresult
with_items:
- { domainpath: 'path1/', statresult: 'stat_result_path1' }
- { domainpath: 'path2/', statresult: 'stat_result_path2' }
- { domainpath: 'path3/', statresult: 'stat_result_path3' }
- name: Create symlink for bin on existing domain machines
file:
src: '/path/to/the/domain/{{ item.srcbin }}'
dest: /path/new/symlink_bin_link
state: link
with_items:
- { srcbin: 'path1/bin/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path1.stat.exists' }
- { srcbin: 'path2/bin/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path2.stat.exists' }
- { srcbin: 'path3/bin/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path3.stat.exists' }
when: item.domainexists
ignore_errors: yes
- name: Create symlink for config on existing domain machines
file:
src: '/path/to/the/domain/{{ item.srcconfig }}'
dest: /path/new/symlink_config_link
state: link
with_items:
- { srcconfig: 'path1/config/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path1.stat.exists' }
- { srcconfig: 'path2/config/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path2.stat.exists' }
- { srcconfig: 'path3/config/', domainexists: 'stat_result_path3.stat.exists' }
when: item.domainexists
ignore_errors: yes
I have to use ignore_errors because otherwise it will not go to the second task. I have tried to use when: item.domainexists == true but that results in the task getting skipped even when it matches a path that exists.
Even if the when statement iterates over every with_items, it should not matter because as long as it matches one, it should do the task correctly?

Answer 1

This is how your playbook should look like:
---
- hosts: all
become: yes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: Check that domains exist
stat:
path: /path/to/the/domain/{{ item }}
loop:
- path1
- path2
- path3
register: my_stat
- name: Ensure symlinks are created for bin on existing domain machines
file:
src: /path/new/symlink_bin_link
dest: /path/to/the/domain/{{ item }}/bin
state: link
loop: "{{ my_stat.results | selectattr('stat.exists') | map(attribute='item') | list }}"
- name: Ensure symlinks are created for config on existing domain machines
file:
src: /path/new/symlink_config_link
dest: /path/to/the/domain/{{ item }}/config
state: link
loop: "{{ my_stat.results | selectattr('stat.exists') | map(attribute='item') | list }}"
Explanation:
register: item.statresult is a nonsensical construct in Ansible, you should provide a name of a variable as a parameter
that variable will contain a list of results for any task running in a loop
you should process that list (see this answer to learn about selectattr and map) to get a list of the paths which exist (only)
you should loop over that filtered-and-mapped list
Also: src and dest should be defined the other way round for symlinks than in your code.
Further, you can combine the last two tasks into one by adding a product filter to the iterable definition.