Create Local File With Ansible Template From Variables

Question

I'm running an ansible playbook against a number of ec2 instances to check if a directory exists.

---
- hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
  - name: Check if foo is installed
    stat:
      path:
        /etc/foo
    register: path
  - debug: msg="{{path.stat.exists}}"

And I would like to generate a localfile that lists the private IP addresses of the ec2 instances and states whether or not the directory foo does exist.

I can get the private IP addresses of the instances with this task

  - name: Get info from remote
    shell: curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/local-ipv4
    register: bar
  - debug: msg="{{bar.stdout}}"

How do I create a local file with content

IP address: 10.100.0.151 directory foo - false
IP address: 10.100.0.152 directory foo - true

I've tried adding a block for this as such

- hosts: localhost
  become: false
  vars:
    installed: "{{bar.stdout}}"
    status:    "{{path.stat.exists}}"
    local_file: "./Report.txt"
  tasks:

  - name: Create local file with info
    copy:
      dest: "{{ local_file }}"
      content: |
        "IP address {{ installed }} foo - {{ status }}"

But it doesn't look like I can read values of variables from earlier steps.

What am I doing wrong please?

Khaled · Answer 1 · 2022-08-19T12:34:23.383

I've used the ec2_metadata_facts module to get the IP address us ingansible_ec2_local_ipv4
I've also created the directory /tmp/testdir on the second host.

- hosts: test_hosts
  gather_facts: no
  vars:
    directory_name: /tmp/testdir
  tasks:

  - ec2_metadata_facts:

  - name: check if directory '{{ directory_name }}' exsists
    stat:
      path: "{{ directory_name }}"
    register: path


  # I make the outputfile empty
  # because the module lineinfile(as I know) can't overwrite a file
  # but appends line to the old content
  - name: create empty output file
    copy:
      content: ""
      dest: outputfile
    delegate_to: localhost
    
  - name: write output to outputfile
    lineinfile:
      dest: outputfile
      line: "IP Address: {{ ansible_ec2_local_ipv4 }} {{ directory_name }} - {{ path.stat.exists }}"
      state: present
    with_items: "{{ groups.all }}"
    # with_items: "{{ ansible_play_hosts }}" can also be used here
    delegate_to: localhost

The outputfile looks like:

IP Address: xxx.xx.x.133 /tmp/testdir - False
IP Address: xxx.xx.x.45 /tmp/testdir - True

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '22 at 22:10

A similar question has been answered here.

Basically what you want is to reference it through the host var variable.

This should work.

- hosts: localhost
  become: false
  vars:
    local_file: "./Report.txt"
  tasks:

  - name: Create local file with info
    lineinfile:
      path: "{{ local_file }}"
      line:
        "IP Address: {{ hostvars[item]['bar'].stdout }} - Installed: {{ hostvars[item]['path'].stat.exists }}"
    with_items: "{{ query('inventory_hostnames', 'all') }}"

And this should populate your local ./Report.txt file, with the info you need.

Create Local File With Ansible Template From Variables

2 Answers2