Ansible block vars

Question

How can I set in Ansible block vars (visible only for tasks in block) ?

I tried:

---
- hosts: test
  tasks:
    - block:

       - name: task 1
         shell: "echo {{item}}"

      with_items:
        - one
        - two

but it seems that it's a wrong way.

Answer 1

• If you want to define a variable for a block:

   - block: - debug: var: var_for_block vars: var_for_block: "value for var_for_block" 

• If you want to "loop over blocks" as your code suggests - you can't. It's not implemented in Ansible. Follow this thread .

  For now consider saving the tasks to a separate file and use include instead.

Answer 2

@Shasha99 you might be able to include a file with a block in it so you can still benefit from the try/catch

includeFile.yml :

- block
    - name: Finding the package.
      shell: rpm -qa | grep "{{pkgName}}"
      register: package

    - name: Uninstalling the package.
      shell: rpm -e "{{package}}"
  always:
    - debug: msg="this always executes"

main.yml:

---
- hosts: all
  vars: 
    - packageList : ["pkg1","pkg2","pkg3","pkg4"]

  tasks:
    - include: includeFile.yml pkgName="{{item}}"
      with_items: packageList