ansible/examples/playbooks/complex_args.yml

---

# this is a bit of an advanced topic.
#
# generally Ansible likes to pass simple key=value arguments to modules.  It occasionally comes up though
# that you might want to write a module that takes COMPLEX arguments, like lists and dictionaries.
#
# happen, at least right now, it should be a Python module, so it can leverage some common code in Ansible that
# makes this easy.  If you write a non-Python module, you can still pass data across, but only hashes that
# do not contain lists or other hashes.  If you write the Python module, you can do anything.
#
# note that if you were to use BOTH the key=value form and the 'args' form for passing data in, the key=value
# parameters take a higher priority, so you can use them for defaults, which can be useful.

- hosts: all
  user: root
  gather_facts: no
 
  vars:
    defaults:
      state: stopped
    complex:
      ghostbusters: [ 'egon', 'ray', 'peter', 'winston' ]
      mice: [ 'pinky', 'brain', 'snowball', 'larry' ]
 
  tasks:

    - name: this is the basic way data passing works for any module
      action: ping data='Hi Mom'

    - name: of course this can also be written like so, which is shorter
      ping: data='Hi Mom'

    - name: but what if you have a complex module that needs complicated data?
      action: ping
      args:
         data: 
           moo: cow
           asdf: [1,2,3,4]

    - name: can we make that cleaner? sure!
      action: ping
      args: { data: $complex }

    - name: or if you prefer... this is equivalent
      action: ping
      args: 
          data: $complex

    - name: here is an example of how it works with defaults, notice the key=value format wins
      action: service name=httpd state=running
      args: $defaults