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I need to achieve two things.

  1. Remove duplicate entries from ansible variable called install_loc

  2. Remove any empty blank lines from install_loc.

Below is how install_loc variable is constructed. 

   - set_fact:
       install_loc: "{{ install_loc | default('') + item.split( )[4] | dirname + '\n' }}"
     loop: "{{ fdet }}"

Below are the contents of install_loc after writing it to a file.

/app/logs/scripts
/app/logs/mrt
/app/logs/com
/app/logs/exe

/app/logs/scripts
/app/logs/mrt
/app/logs/com
/app/logs/exe

/app/logs/scripts
/app/logs/mrt
/app/logs/com
/app/logs/exe

As you can see the variable as newlines as well as duplicate entries.

Desired output should be as below. Note: Order does not matter:

/app/logs/scripts
/app/logs/mrt
/app/logs/com
/app/logs/exe

I tried 

   - set_fact:
       install_loc: "{{ install_loc | unique }}"

But i get distorted text like below:

set([u'\n', u'/', u'.', u'1', u'0', u'3', u'2', u'C', u'E', u'G', u'F', u'I', u'N', u'a', u'c', u'e', u't', u'i', u'm', u'o', u'o', u'n', u's', u's', u'r', u'u', u't', u'x'])

Can you please suggest ?

Ashar
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1 Answers1

3

The solution:

- set_fact:
    install_loc: "{{ install_loc.split('\n') | unique | select | list }}"

Explanation:

  • install_loc.split('\n') - Split the install_loc by newlines
  • unique - Remove duplicates
  • select - Get rid of empty or null values
  • list - Convert from a Python "generator" to a list

If you want a single string (as the input) replace list by join('\n').

mhutter
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  • This makes install_loc as a list instead of string and when written to a file looks like this: ['/app/logs/scripts', '/app/logs/mrt', '/app/logs/com', '/app/logs/exe'] when i want it to look like /app/logs/scripts /app/logs/mrt /app/logs/com /app/logs/exe – Ashar Nov 20 '19 at 08:05
  • If i remove list from the command it prints in the file with inline module – Ashar Nov 20 '19 at 08:11
  • See the last line of my answer. – mhutter Nov 20 '19 at 19:45
  • Thanks @mhurter this answers my question. However i m not able to read this variable in a different play. I posted a new query here if you could help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58959397/unable-to-read-set-fact-variable-in-different-ansible-play – Ashar Nov 21 '19 at 02:30