Ansible: Defined is not Truthy

playground

Published

January 6, 2024

I was creating some ansible playbooks recently, and I came across an interesting issue.

In my variable definition file, this:

vars/main.yml

test_var: # This is a test var

When evaluating whether or not it was defined:

- name: Print test var
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: test_var
- name: Is null defined
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "test_var is defined"
  when: test_var is defined

This would actually evaluate to true:

TASK [Print test var] ************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "test_var": null
}

TASK [Is null defined] ***********************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "test_var is defined"
}

So apparently, null is defined. This is a somewhat weird behavior.

Apparently, it’s only when variables are completly unset, unmentioned in any files, that a variable is not considered defined.

However, even if variables are not defined, then the value of null is still considerd to be falsey

- name: What about truthyism?
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "test_var is truthy"
      when: test_var
- name: What about the bool filter
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "test var passes the bool"
  when: test_var | bool

TASK [What about truthyism?] *****************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

TASK [What about the bool filter] ************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

And these tasks are skipped, because null is falsey, and doesn’t satisfy the when statements.

What about an empty string?

empty_string: ""

- name: What about a length filter?
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "empty_string passes the length filter"
  when: empty_string | length > 0
- name: Print empty_string
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: empty_string
- name: Is empty_string defined
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "empty_string is defined"
  when: empty_string is defined
- name: What about truthyism?
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "empty_string is truthy"
  when: empty_string
- name: What about the bool filter
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "empty_string passes the bool"
  when: empty_string | bool
- name: Empty string truthy in assert?
  ansible.builtin.assert:
    that: empty_string

TASK [What about a length filter?] ***********************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

TASK [Print empty_string] ********************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "empty_string": ""
}

TASK [Is empty_string defined] ***************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "empty_string is defined"
}

TASK [What about truthyism?] *****************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

TASK [What about the bool filter] ************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

TASK [Empty string truthy in assert?] ********************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "assertion": "empty_string",
    "changed": false,
    "evaluated_to": false,
    "msg": "Assertion failed"
}
...ignoring

So an empty_string is considered defined, falsey, and unlike a null value, it can also be passed through the length filter, to get falsey.

What about completely unset? Not bothering to mention a variable in any files?

- name: Is variable truthy
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "unset is truthy?"
  when: unset
  ignore_errors: true
- name: Uset variable defined?
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "unset is defined"
  when: unset is defined

TASK [Empty string truthy in assert?] ********************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "assertion": "empty_string",
    "changed": false,
    "evaluated_to": false,
    "msg": "Assertion failed"
}
...ignoring

TASK [Is variable truthy] ********************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The conditional check 'unset' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional (unset): 'unset' is undefined. 'unset' is undefined\n\nThe error appears to be in '/stuff/playbook.yml': line 53, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n      ignore_errors: true\n    - name: Is variable truthy\n      ^ here\n"}
...ignoring

TASK [Uset variable defined?] ****************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [localhost]

So this is an interesting phenomenon. Trying to check a completely undefined variable for truthyness doesn’t work.

What about an is defined, and a check for truthyness? For my specific usecase, I have an ansible role that generates a variable, that some roles may rely on. If the first role isn’t run or run out of order, things could break.

I want an ansible.builtin.assert, which essentially checks some conditions, and fails, stopping the playbook if they are not met. How can I check if a variable is defined first, and then truthy? Now, a check for truthyism will still fail, but without the assert catching the error, the error message won’t be as explicit.

I created a variable called notunset, and set it to “stuff”, and ran some similar tests.

- name: Notunset variable defined?
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "unset is defined"
  when: notunset is defined
- name: Notunset variable defined and truthy?
  ansible.builtin.assert:
    that: notunset is defined and notunset | bool
  ignore_errors: true

TASK [Is notunset variable truthy] ***********************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "notunset is truthy?"
}

TASK [Notunset variable defined?] ************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "unset is defined"
}

TASK [Notunset variable defined and truthy?] *************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
    "assertion": "notunset is defined and notunset | bool",
    "changed": false,
    "evaluated_to": false,
    "msg": "Assertion failed"
}
...ignoring

Huh. Why does this fail?

A little modification though, and it succeeds:

- name: Notunset variable defined and truthy?
  ansible.builtin.assert:
    that: notunset is defined and notunset
  ignore_errors: true

TASK [Notunset variable defined and truthy?] *************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "All assertions passed"
}

When doing a little more testing, this interacts properly with assert with undefined, null, and empty strings, properly turning them into falsey and truthy values.

Another thing to note is the default filter. When a variable is undefined, it will assign it a default value.

Interestingly, this also considers null to be undefined. When working with the test_var, which defined but never assigned a value (null):

- name: How about the default filter?
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ test_var | default('test_var is not defined') }}"

TASK [How about the default filter?] *********************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": ""
}

Null is considered defined again, as shown here.

when: variable | default(False)

Creates an elegant way to check if a variable exists, and set it to a False otherwise. This is the final solution I’ve settled on, for when I can’t guarantee variables are defined (including null or an empty list/string)