Basically, when using conditionals or variables in your tasks you should
use include_tasks instead of import_tasks. The down side is that you now
need to tag all included tasks individually or with a block, unlike when
using static imports (tags are applied to all imported child tasks).
I would actually like to reduce this task to a single one that uses the
host's ansible_distribution variable, but Ansible 2.5.1 currently gives
the following error: ansible_distribution is undefined.
Vanilla Ubuntu (and Debian actually) defaults to using the official
mirror for security updates rather than country or regional mirrors.
Also, for what it's worth, Ubuntu mirrors didn't always sync these
security archives. I'd prefer to stay closer to vanilla Ubuntu but
also it kinda makes sense to get security updates from the official
source than a mirror (in case of delay or errors).
We stopped being able to do dynamic includes from the playbooks around
Ansible 2.4.0.0 if I recall correctly. Instead we can create a task to
include the variables and make it always run by using the special tag.
For now the Debian and Ubuntu vars files are the same, but I will keep
them separate so that it is more flexible in the future.
Ansible 2.4 and 2.5 are moving away from specialized loop functions
and the old syntax will eventually be deprecated and removed. I did
not change the with_fileglob loops because I'm not sure about their
syntax yet.
See: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html
You should only use the "shell" module when you need shell functions
like flow control and redirects. Also, the "command" module is safer
because it is not affected by the user's environment.
Something seems to have happened as of Ansible 2.4.0.0 where this no
longer works. I suspect it is related to the major changes to static
and dynamic imports that landed around this same time.
In practice this achieves the same function, but without the "magic"
ability to use one task for different operating systems.
Something seems to have happened as of Ansible 2.4.0.0 where this no
longer works. I suspect it is related to the major changes to static
and dynamic imports that landed around this same time.
We make sure that this tasks always runs by using the special tag of
the same name.
Ansible 2.4 changes the way includes work. Now you have to use "import"
for playbooks and tasks that are static, and "include" for those that
are dynamic (ie, those that use variables, loops, etc).
See: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/playbooks_reuse_includes.html
I'm surprised this worked all these years actually. Since Ansible
version 1.6 it has been possible to use the version_compare filter
instead of doing math logic on strings.
See: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_tests.html
