This is a fix on top of the 'airplane variable upgrade' commits that fixes legacy when_string so it evaluates correctly in the new eval construct.

lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py

@@ -66,7 +66,6 @@ def _executor_hook(job_queue, result_queue):
             return_data = multiprocessing_runner._executor(host)
             result_queue.put(return_data)
 
-            # print "FLAGS=%s" % return_data.flags
             if 'LEGACY_TEMPLATE_WARNING' in return_data.flags:
                 # pass data back up across the multiprocessing fork boundary
                 template.Flags.LEGACY_TEMPLATE_WARNING = True

lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py

@@ -601,12 +601,18 @@ def compile_when_to_only_if(expression):
             cast = 'float'
         tcopy = tokens[1:]
         for (i,t) in enumerate(tokens[1:]):
-            if t.find("$") != -1:
+            #if re.search(t, r"^\w"):
-                # final variable substitution will happen in Runner code
+                # bare word will turn into Jinja2 so all the above
-                tcopy[i] = "%s('''%s''')" % (cast, t)
+                # casting is really not needed
+                #tcopy[i] = "%s('''%s''')" % (cast, t)
+            t2 = t.strip()
+            if (t2[0].isalpha() or t2[0] == '$') and cast == 'str':
+               tcopy[i] = "'%s'" % (t)
             else:
                tcopy[i] = t
-        return " ".join(tcopy)
+        result = " ".join(tcopy)
+        return result
+
 
     # when_boolean
     elif tokens[0] in [ 'bool', 'boolean' ]: