How can I manipuate each item in a list when using Ansible?

Question

The special variable ansible_role_names contains a list with roles names in my play. For example

"ansible_role_names": [
    "geerlingguy.nfs", 
    "ANXS.openssh", 
    "robertdebock.bootstrap", 
    "robertdebock.squid"
]

However what I want to access is this list with everything before the dot removed.

"roles": [
    "nfs", 
    "openssh", 
    "bootstrap", 
    "squid"    ]

Answer 1

Q: "How to manipulate each item in an array when using Ansible?"

A: It's possible to map the regex_replace filter. For example the play

- set_fact:
    my_list: "{{ ansible_role_names|
                 map('regex_replace', regex, replace)|
                 list }}"
  vars:
    regex: '^(.*)\.(.*)$'
    replace: '\2'
- debug:
    var: my_list

gives

"my_list": [
    "nfs", 
    "openssh", 
    "bootstrap", 
    "squid"
]

---

regex: '^(.*)\.(.*)$'

• ^ matches the beginning of the string
• (.*) matches any character in capture group No.1
• \. matches .
• (.*) matches any character in capture group No.2
• $ matches the end of the string

replace: '\2'

• \2 matches previously defined capture group No.2