Looping over an ansible dict for specific value - loops

Question

With ansible, looping over a list of items that return a dict(?) with listed values.
Basically I want to check a dict of packages to see if they are installed or not (and later on return a message for any missing packages).
Any loop/with_dict combo tried so far return various errors that the specific variable can't be found.
When querying the status itself (yum module) it does put the full output into the {{ pkg }} var, per package.
---
- name: Ansible tests playbook
hosts: vms
remote_user: root
vars:
pkgs:
- yum-utils
- mariadb-libs
tasks:
- name: Check packages
yum:
list: "{{ item }}"
disablerepo: '*'
register: pkg
loop: "{{ pkgs }}"
If I then simply output the contents of {{ pkg.results }} with :
- name: list
debug:
msg: "{{ item }}"
loop: "{{ pkg.results }}"
I get :
root#vm011:~/ovirt# ansible-playbook check.yml
PLAY [Ansible tests playbook] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vm017.warp]
TASK [Check paclages] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=yum-utils)
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=mariadb-libs)
TASK [list] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=None) =>
msg:
changed: false
failed: false
invocation:
module_args:
allow_downgrade: false
conf_file: null
disable_gpg_check: false
disable_plugin: []
disablerepo: '*'
enable_plugin: []
enablerepo: null
exclude: null
install_repoquery: true
installroot: /
list: yum-utils
name: null
security: false
skip_broken: false
state: installed
update_cache: false
update_only: false
validate_certs: true
item: yum-utils
results:
- arch: noarch
envra: 0:yum-utils-1.1.31-50.el7.noarch
epoch: '0'
name: yum-utils
release: 50.el7
repo: installed
version: 1.1.31
yumstate: installed
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=None) =>
msg:
changed: false
failed: false
invocation:
module_args:
allow_downgrade: false
conf_file: null
disable_gpg_check: false
disable_plugin: []
disablerepo: '*'
enable_plugin: []
enablerepo: null
exclude: null
install_repoquery: true
installroot: /
list: mariadb-libs
name: null
security: false
skip_broken: false
state: installed
update_cache: false
update_only: false
validate_certs: true
item: mariadb-libs
results:
- arch: x86_64
envra: 1:mariadb-libs-5.5.60-1.el7_5.x86_64
epoch: '1'
name: mariadb-libs
release: 1.el7_5
repo: installed
version: 5.5.60
yumstate: installed
How can I get just the yumstate value (installed, or otherwise), per package, into a separate variable ?
If, for instance, I try to debug the msg with
- name: list
debug:
msg: "{{ item.yumstate }}"
loop: "{{ pkg.results }}"
I get:
fatal: [vm017.warp]: FAILED! =>
msg: |-
The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'dict object' has no attribute 'yumstate'

Answer 1

you are looping correctly through the pkg.results, but in each item the yumstate is under another results key. you should use:
- name: list
debug:
msg: "{{ item.results.yumstate }}"
loop: "{{ pkg.results }}"
i tried your code on my fedora, and the results for one of the 2 packages has as value a list, so the item.results.yumstate would not work: Fedora response for yum utils:
"item.results": [
{
"arch": "noarch",
"epoch": "0",
"name": "yum-utils",
"nevra": "0:yum-utils-1.1.31-517.fc29.noarch",
"release": "517.fc29",
"repo": "fedora",
"version": "1.1.31",
"yumstate": "available"
},
{
"arch": "noarch",
"epoch": "0",
"name": "yum-utils",
"nevra": "0:yum-utils-1.1.31-518.fc29.noarch",
"release": "518.fc29",
"repo": "updates",
"version": "1.1.31",
"yumstate": "available"
}
]
for mariadb-libs, no packages found, response was:
"item.results": []
hope it helps

Answer 2

You did indeed point me in the correct way.
- name: list
debug:
msg: "Package {{ item.results[0].name }} is {{ item.results[0].yumstate }}"
loop: "{{ pkg.results }}"
Did the trick, with just "{{ item.results.yumstate }}" it still returned an error
TASK [list] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [vm017.warp]: FAILED! =>
msg: |-
The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'list object' has no attribute 'yumstate'
Adding the [0] got me:
TASK [list] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=None) =>
msg: Package yum-utils is installed
ok: [vm017.warp] => (item=None) =>
msg: Package mariadb-libs is installed

Answer 3

You might want to consider nested loops , also known aa "loops and includes" if you're attempting fancy things.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html#defining-inner-and-outer-variable-names-with-loop-var