how to make excluded variables dynamic in ansible - ansible

Question

i am trying to make a playbook to change permissions across all servers, but i need to exclude few directories and files. I am trying to make the files allocation dynamic , as you can see i have excluded 2 , but i want to make it generalized or dynamic . plz suggest .
Below is my playbook, please note i am using directory structure :
permission.yml:
---
- hosts: 127.0.0.1
roles:
- { role: fileperm, target_dir: "/tmp/testingpermissions" }
- { role: fileperm, target_dir: "/tmp/abc" }
- { role: fileperm, target_dir: "/amp/app/tomcatdefault7055" }
Vars:
main.yml:
---
exclude1: "/tmp/testingpermissions/plugins"
exclude2: "/tmp/testingpermissions/files"
tasks:
main.yml:
---
- name: Ensure directories are 0755
command: find {{ target_dir }} -type d ! -path "{{ exclude1 }}*" ! -path "{{ exclude2 }}*" -exec chmod -c 0755 {} \;
register: chmod_result
changed_when: "chmod_result.stdout != \"\""

Answer 1

You could use the 'file' module, and loop through your list of directories that need to have their permissions changed,
e.g. sth like this in the vars:
# /vars/main.yml
updatepermissions:
- "/tmp/testingpermissions"
- "/tmp/abc"
- "/amp/app/tomcatdefault7055"
... and then sth like this in the tasks:
# /tasks/main.yml
- name: Set directory permissions to 0755
file:
path: "{{ item }}"
state: directory
mode: 0755
with_items: "{{ updatepermissions }}"
This will set the permissions on only the directories that you specify. So instead updating permissions for everything except for some excluded few, you'd only update the permissions on a set list of directories that need the given permissions.
For directories where you don't want to exclude any subdirectories from setting permissions, you can add "recurse=yes".
Otherwise, if you prefer the command task with "! -path", you could maybe do something like this:
# /vars/main.yml
updatepermissions:
- include: "/tmp/testingpermissions"
exclude: "! -path \"/tmp/testingpermissions/plugins\" ! -path \"/tmp/testingpermissions/abc\""
- include: "/some/other/directory"
exclude: ""
and then in the tasks sth like this:
# /tasks/main.yml
- name: update permissions
command: "find {{ item.include }} -type d {{ item.exclude }} -exec chmod -c 0755 {} \;"
register: chmod_result
changed_when: "chmod_result.stdout != \"\""
with_items: "{{ updatepermissions }}"