Ansible – How to Loop an Array Variable

ansibleansible-playbook

I have below task and I am failing to add the loop for the array variable.
ShopID is defined as an array inside group_vars. My aim is to call each variable one by one.

- name: Create directories with required permission
  file:
    path: "{{ item.dest }}"
    mode: "{{item.mode}}"
    owner: "{{ item.owner }}"
    group: "{{ item.group }}"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory
  loop:
  - { dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}', mode: '0755', owner: 'root', group: 'root' }
  - { dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/.ssh', mode: '0700', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}" }
  - { dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/to_xxx', mode: '0777', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}" }
  - { dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/to_xxx/known_customers', mode: '0777', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}" }

Output for the above task is something like this-

failed: [file.xyz.com] (item={'dest': '/home/[77712351, 77712352]/.ssh', 'mode': '0700', 'owner': [77712351, 77712352], 'group': [77712351, 77712352]}) => {"ansible_loop_var": "item", "changed": false, "gid": 0, "group": "root", "item": {"dest": "/home/[77712351, 77712352]/.ssh", "group": [77712351, 77712352], "mode": "0700", "owner": [77712351, 77712352]}, "mode": "0755", "msg": "chown failed: failed to look up user [77712351, 77712352]", "owner": "root", "path": "/home/[77712351, 77712352]/.ssh", "size": 4096, "state": "directory", "uid": 0}

Best Answer

Put the task into a file, e.g.

shell> cat create_dir.yml
- name: Create directories with required permission
  debug:
    msg: |
      path: "{{ item.dest }}"
      mode: "{{item.mode}}"
      owner: "{{ item.owner }}"
      group: "{{ item.group }}"
      recurse: yes
      state: directory
  loop:
    - {dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}', mode: '0755', owner: 'root', group: 'root'}
    - {dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/.ssh', mode: '0700', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}"}
    - {dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/to_xxx', mode: '0777', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}"}
    - {dest: '/home/{{ ShopID }}/to_xxx/known_customers', mode: '0777', owner: "{{ ShopID }}", group: "{{ ShopID }}"}

and include it in the loop

shell> cat test-496.yml
- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    ShopID_list: [77712351, 77712352]
  tasks:
    - include_tasks: create_dir.yml
      loop: "{{ ShopID_list }}"
      loop_control:
        loop_var: ShopID

gives

TASK [Create directories with required permission] *************************

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712351"
    mode: "0755"
    owner: "root"
    group: "root"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712351/.ssh"
    mode: "0700"
    owner: "77712351"
    group: "77712351"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712351/to_xxx"
    mode: "0777"
    owner: "77712351"
    group: "77712351"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712351/to_xxx/known_customers"
    mode: "0777"
    owner: "77712351"
    group: "77712351"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

TASK [Create directories with required permission] *************************

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712352"
    mode: "0755"
    owner: "root"
    group: "root"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712352/.ssh"
    mode: "0700"
    owner: "77712352"
    group: "77712352"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712352/to_xxx"
    mode: "0777"
    owner: "77712352"
    group: "77712352"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory

  msg: |-
    path: "/home/77712352/to_xxx/known_customers"
    mode: "0777"
    owner: "77712352"
    group: "77712352"
    recurse: yes
    state: directory