Ansible YAML Output Formatting For List of Dictionaries

Question

In Ansible, is it possible to output a list of dictionaries in pretty print YAML with flow style mapping?

Example of source list of dict:

my_servers:
  - hostname: myhostname1
    id: 101
    reverse: 'true'
    type: red
  - hostname: myhostname2
    id: 102
    reverse: 'false'
    type: white
  - hostname: myhostname3
    id: 103
    reverse: 'true'
    type: blue
  - hostname: myhostname4
    id: 104
    reverse: 'false'
    type: green

I'd like to output to be like this:

my_servers:
  - {hostname: myhostname1, id: 101, type: red, reverse: "true"}
  - {hostname: myhostname2, id: 102, type: white, reverse: "false"}
  - {hostname: myhostname3, id: 103, type: blue, reverse: "true"}
  - {hostname: myhostname4, id: 104, type: green, reverse: "false"}

The only way I got it to look like this was through custom Jinja templating. Is there another way someone can share?

Answer 1

@β.εηοιτ.βε above led to dig further and found the answer.

The key is to set default_flow_style=none in the to_yaml filter.

- name: Test
  hosts: "localhost"
  gather_facts: no
  serial: 1

  vars:
    my_servers:
      - hostname: myhostname1
        id: 101
        reverse: 'true'
        type: red
      - hostname: myhostname2
        id: 102
        reverse: 'false'
        type: white
      - hostname: myhostname3
        id: 103
        reverse: 'true'
        type: blue
      - hostname: myhostname4
        id: 104
        reverse: 'false'
        type: green

  tasks:
  - debug: 
      msg: | 
        my_servers:
        {{  my_servers | to_yaml(default_flow_style=none) }}

Gives this:

ok: [localhost] => {}

MSG:

my_servers:
- {hostname: myhostname1, id: 101, reverse: 'true', type: red}
- {hostname: myhostname2, id: 102, reverse: 'false', type: white}
- {hostname: myhostname3, id: 103, reverse: 'true', type: blue}
- {hostname: myhostname4, id: 104, reverse: 'false', type: green}

The problem now is to get proper indentation.