Templated dict keys in ansible YAML

Question

I am trying to use a dict in an Ansible task, which is defined like this:

in vars/main.yml file:

username: user1
userpass: pass1
users:
  "{{ username }}":
    pass: "{{ userpass }}"

This doesn't work in Ansible 2.9: Ansible seems to not interpolate the value for "{{ username }}"

IIRC this worked fine around Ansible 2.5

What has changed? How should I rewrite my roles and playbooks now?

Vladimir Botka · Answer 1 · 2024-05-06T21:26:08.113

The play

- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    username: user1
    userpass: pass1
    users: "{{ {username: {'pass': userpass}} }}"
  tasks:
    - debug:
        var: users

gives:

"users": {
    "user1": {
        "pass": "pass1"
    }
}

Is this what you're looking for?

^{Q: expect to get an error ... there is an extra colon on line 5.
A: It's JSON format
{username: {'pass': userpass}}

JSON is a YAML subset. Test it in YAML Lint. The YAML equivalent is

username:
pass: userpass

Optionally, it is possible to create the structure in a block

users: |
{{ username }}:
pass: {{ userpass}}

and to use the filter from_yaml to convert it. For example,
- debug:
var: users | from_yaml

gives
users | from_yaml:
user1:
pass: pass1

Use the yaml callback. See

shell> ansible-doc -t callback yaml}

Templated dict keys in ansible YAML

1 Answers1