Ansible looping through files

Question

Prior to Ansible 2.5, the syntax for loops used to be with_x. Starting at 2.5, loop is favored and with_x basically disappeared from the docs.

Still, the docs mention exemples of how to replace with_x with loop. But I'm clueless as to how we're now supposed to loop through a directory of files.

Let's say I need to upload all the files within a given dir, I used to use with_fileglob.

- name: Install local checks
  copy:
    src: "{{ item }}"
    dest: /etc/sensu/plugins/
    owner: sensu
    group: sensu
    mode: 0744
  with_fileglob:
    - plugins/*

So what's the modern equivalent? Is it even possible? I know I still can use with_fileglob but as I'm writing new roles, I'd better have them future-proof.

Answer 1

• The equivalent is below. See Comparing loop and with_*

  loop: "{{ lookup('fileglob', 'plugins/*', wantlist=True) }}"

• Optionally, you can use query instead of lookup. Quoting from Forcing lookups to return lists:

The difference between lookup and query is largely that query will always return a list. The default behavior of lookup is to return a string of comma-separated values. lookup can be explicitly configured to return a list using wantlist=True.

  loop: "{{ query('fileglob', 'plugins/*') }}"

• Additionally, q was introduced as a short form of query

  loop: "{{ q('fileglob', 'plugins/*') }}"

All three options give the same result. See Lookup plugins.

Answer 2

From the current Ansible loops doc:

Any with_* statement that requires using lookup within a loop should not be converted to use the loop keyword. For example, instead of doing:

loop: "{{ lookup('fileglob', '*.txt', wantlist=True) }}"

it’s cleaner to keep:

with_fileglob: '*.txt'