Ansible: Simple comparison failing when comparing integers

Question

I have the following:

- set_fact:
   test_string: "{{ htmlres.content | regex_search('test-([0-9]+)', '\\1') | first}}"

This retrieves 2 which is part of a string contained in the htmlres.content content which is test-2.

So now I'm trying to compare the result of that output and fail the execution if it is not 2, so I tried this:

- name: Fail if test_string is not 2
  fail: msg="Incorrect string. Expected 2, but instead got {{ test_string }}"
  when: test_string != 2

However I've outputted the contents of test_string and I know for a fact that it is 2. Why is it failing?

I've tried adding | string and | int to the end of test_string since my first though is that it would be an issue with type comparison, but that didn't work either.

Thank you.

Also ``htmlres.content`` seems to be needed. https://idownvotedbecau.se/nomcve/ — Vladimir Botka, Aug 20 '21 at 14:18

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 13 '22 at 20:26

Unless jinja2_native is enabled, the result of templating is always a string. You need to take that into account in your comparison.

- name: Fail if test_string is not 2
  fail: msg="Incorrect string. Expected 2, but instead got {{ test_string }}"
  when: test_string | int != 2

or

- name: Fail if test_string is not 2
  fail: msg="Incorrect string. Expected 2, but instead got {{ test_string }}"
  when: test_string != '2'

Ansible: Simple comparison failing when comparing integers

1 Answers1