Can Ansible "echo" items as it installs them? - ansible

Question

I have a rather long task in my Ansible playbook that installs various packages using APT. This tasks takes a very long time on my laptop. Is there any way to get Ansible to "echo" which item it's installing as it iterates through the packages so I can get an idea of how much longer this task is going to take?
- name: install global packages
apt: pkg={{ item }} update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
become_user: root
with_items:
- git
- vim
- bash-completion
- bash-doc
- wput
- tree
- colordiff
- libjpeg62-turbo-dev
- libopenjpeg-dev
- zlib1g-dev
- libwebp-dev
- libffi-dev
- libncurses5-dev
- python-setuptools
- python-dev
- python-doc
- python-pip
- virtualenv
- virtualenvwrapper
- python-psycopg2
- postgresql-9.4
- postgresql-server-dev-9.4
- postgresql-contrib
- postgresql-doc-9.4
- postgresql-client
- postgresql-contrib-9.4
- postgresql-9.4-postgis-2.1
- postgis-doc
- postgis
- nginx
- supervisor
- redis-server

Answer 1

In general, Ansible actually does exactly that. It would output every item separately. Which under the hood means: It builds a python package, uploads it to the host(s) and executes it - for every item.
The apt and yum modules have been optimized for loops. Instead of looping over every item, Ansible builds a package that installs all loop items in one go.
Your command translates to something like this:
apt-get -y install git vim bash-completion bash-doc wput ...
So in this case, no, there is no way to output the separate steps to see where Ansible is. Because there are no separate steps.
The docs for the apt module is missing the note which is available in the yum module page:
When used with a loop of package names in a playbook, ansible optimizes the call to the yum module. Instead of calling the module with a single package each time through the loop, ansible calls the module once with all of the package names from the loop.
When you work with remote machines, this is actually a preferable behavior. This speeds up the play by a lot. If you run your playbook locally, of course there is not much benefit.
A simple workaround would be to simply not use the apt module but run a shell command.
- name: install global packages
shell: apt-get -y install {{ item }}
become: True

Answer 2

Find your ansible install directory using:
> python -c 'import ansible; print ansible.__file__'
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/__init__.pyc
Backup the <ansible_install>/runner/__init__.py file
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/runner/__init__.py
Edit the file, search for 'apt' and remove 'apt' from the list.
if len(items) and utils.is_list_of_strings(items) and self.module_name in [ 'apt', 'yum', 'pkgng' ]:
to
if len(items) and utils.is_list_of_strings(items) and self.module_name in [ 'yum', 'pkgng' ]:
Thats it!

Answer 3

When I want a bit more feedback on the playbook run I'll group packages together by their purpose. The cache_valid_time allows you to do this without the normal penalty of updating the repo cache each time. I find this improves readability and documentation as well.
- name: install global packages
apt: pkg={{ item }} update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
with_items:
- git
- vim
- bash-completion
- bash-doc
- wput
- tree
- colordiff
- libjpeg62-turbo-dev
- libopenjpeg-dev
- zlib1g-dev
- libwebp-dev
- libffi-dev
- libncurses5-dev
- name: install python and friends
apt: pkg={{ item }} update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
with_items:
- python-setuptools
- python-dev
- python-doc
- python-pip
- virtualenv
- virtualenvwrapper
- python-psycopg2
- name: install postgresql
apt: pkg={{ item }} update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
with_items:
- postgresql-9.4
- postgresql-server-dev-9.4
- postgresql-contrib
- postgresql-doc-9.4
- postgresql-client
- postgresql-contrib-9.4
- postgresql-9.4-postgis-2.1
- name: install postgis
apt: pkg={{ item }} update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
with_items:
- postgis-doc
- postgis
- name: install nginx
apt: pkg=nginx update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
- name: install supervisor
apt: pkg=supervisor update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True
- name: install redis
apt: pkg=redis-server update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=3600
become: True