How to use a list of jinja templates store in a YML file with a Playbook?

Question

I need help because i'm stuck since 2 days with a playbook.

First of all, i have a YAML file which contains jinja templates :

---
template lab:
 - first_template.j2
 - second_template.j2
 - third_template.j2

It exists a YAML file which have value for each router, stores in "./yml/{{ inventory_hostname }}.yml"

I have a playbook Ansible which needs to use jinja templates for generate a .conf file.

---
- name: Generate .conf file
  hosts: my_routers
  gather_facts: no
  vars: 
  - jinja_templates: "{{ (lookup('template', './template_list.yml') | from_yaml).template_lab }}"
  vars_files: 
  - "./yml/{{ inventory_hostname }}.yml"
  
  tasks:
    - name: test
      debug:
        msg: "{{ jinja_templates }}"
    - name: Generate configuration files
      template:
        src: "./templates/{{ jinja_templates }}"
        dest: "./tmp/general/{{ inventory_hostname }}.conf"
        mode: "0644"

OUTPUT of the playbook when i play it :

Could not find or access './templates/['first_template.j2', 'second_template.j2', 'third_template'.j2']'

1 : The first issue is that { jinja_templates }} output contains "[" "]" and "'" "'", so it is impossible for Ansible to use the Jinja Templates.

2 : How can i do an interation for use all jinja templates and generate configuration in a single file ?

I know that i don't use the correct structure of Ansible' Playbook ! It is for the moment experimental test :)

Thank you

Answer 1

You're passing the template files names as one line:

- debug:
   msg: "{{ jinja_templates }}"

The output is being an array:

TASK [test] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        "first_template.j2",
        "second_template.j2",
        "third_template.j2"
    ]
}

You should loop over it to get them as single values:

- debug:
   msg: "{{ item }}"
  loop: "{{ jinja_templates }}"

TASK [test] *******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=first_template.j2) => {
    "msg": "first_template.j2"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=second_template.j2) => {
    "msg": "second_template.j2"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=third_template.j2) => {
    "msg": "third_template.j2"
}

Besides that you defined the same destination file in your template task dest: "./tmp/general/{{ inventory_hostname }}.conf".
That would lead to only writing the last template file.