Loops

Often you need to repeat a task multiple times with different values – for example, installing several packages or creating multiple users. Ansible loops make this easy and keep your playbooks DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).

Basic Loop with loop

Use the loop keyword with a list of items. The current item is available as {{ item }}.

- name: Install multiple packages
  apt:
    name: "{{ item }}"
    state: present
  loop:
    - git
    - curl
    - vim

Looping Over a List of Hashes

If you need multiple attributes per item, use a list of dictionaries. Access values with {{ item.key }}.

- name: Create users with specific UIDs
  user:
    name: "{{ item.name }}"
    uid: "{{ item.uid }}"
    state: present
  loop:
    - { name: 'alice', uid: 1001 }
    - { name: 'bob', uid: 1002 }

Looping Over the Output of a Task

Use loop: "{{ some_command.stdout_lines }}" to iterate over lines from a command result.

- name: Get list of files
  command: ls /tmp
  register: files

- name: Print each file
  debug:
    msg: "{{ item }}"
  loop: "{{ files.stdout_lines }}"

Using loop_control to Customize Loop Variable Name

You can rename item to something more descriptive:

- name: Install packages
  apt:
    name: "{{ pkg }}"
  loop:
    - nginx
    - postgresql
  loop_control:
    loop_var: pkg

Do’s and Don’ts

Loops are powerful, but avoid nesting loops when possible. For complex scenarios, consider using roles or including tasks from files.

Two Minute Drill

Use loop with a list to repeat a task.
Access each item with {{ item }}.
Loop over dictionaries to set multiple parameters.
Customize loop variable with loop_control.

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