Thanks all for your help. I have been really bored with the block... but I finally succeed. The ansible / yaml syntax is not always straightforward to understand (or I lack some skills).
I went back to the ansible block documentation <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks_blocks.html>, and make a trial replacing my main.yml file with the example on the page, i.e. : cat roles/devTools/tasks/main.yml tasks: - name: Install Apache block: - yum: name={{ item }} state=installed with_items: - httpd - memcached - template: src=templates/src.j2 dest=/etc/foo.conf - service: name=bar state=started enabled=True when: ansible_distribution == 'CentOS' become: true become_user: root And I still get an error saying that the role must contain a list of task : ERROR! The tasks/main.yml file for role 'devTools' must contain a list of tasks The error appears to have been in '/home/jeanlupi/centos_test/myKnowledge/devOps/playbook/roles/devTools/tasks/main.yml' : line 1, column 1, but may be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. The offending line appears to be: tasks: ^ here Ok... I removed "tasks" (don't clearly understand why it must not be there...) and the problem disappeared. After several other syntax errors (probably not totally sticked to block), I succeeded with : cat roles/devTools/tasks/RedHat.yml - name: Update Red Hat machine block: - yum: update_cache=yes name="*" state=latest notify: "restart {{ ansible_os_family }} host" - yum: name="{{item}}" state=present with_items: "{{ toolList }}" notify: "restart {{ ansible_os_family }} host" when: ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum' become: true become_user: root As mentioned in the answers, notify must not be set at block level, but after each enclosed task. Thanks for your help. Have a nice day. JiElPe Le mercredi 31 janvier 2018 16:29:00 UTC+1, JiElPe-Fr38 a écrit : > > Dear all, > > I am quite new to Ansible and try to "make a tour"... > I am using ansible 2.4.2.0 with cygwin64 on Win7. > > > I am currently make a personal training and find that I could use a block > to "enclose" (ok, perhaps wrong term) a couple of task that have some > common "properties" (like become_user: root ...). > The idea is to change this : > > --- > - name: Update Red Hat machine > yum: > update_cache: yes > name: '*' > state: latest > when: ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum' > become: true > become_user: root > ignore_errors: yes > notify: "restart {{ ansible_os_family }} host" > > - name: Install RedHat tools > yum: > name: "{{ item }}" > state: present > with_items: "{{ toolList }}" > when: ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum' > become: true > become_user: root > ignore_errors: yes > notify: "restart {{ ansible_os_family }} host" > > > > into a block based syntax so that I can factorize the become / notify and > when statement. > II have made several trials without any success. > Playing the file below : > --- > -block: > - name: Update Red Hat machine > yum: > update_cache: yes > name: '*' > state: latest > > - name: Install RedHat tools > yum: > name: "{{ item }}" > state: present > with_items: "{{ toolList }}" > > when: ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum' > become: true > become_user: root > ignore_errors: yes > notify: "restart {{ ansible_os_family }} host" > > I get this error : > fatal: [ci-server]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Syntax Error while loading > YAML.\n\n\nThe error appears to have been in > '/home/jeanlupi/centos_test/myKnowledge/devOps/playbook/roles/devTools/tasks/RedHat.yml': > > line 16, column 3, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact > syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n when: > ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum'\n ^ here\n\nexception type: <class > 'yaml.parser.ParserError'>\nexception: while parsing a block collection\n > in \"<unicode string>\", line 3, column 3:\n - name: Update Red Hat > machine\n ^\nexpected <block end>, but found '?'\n in \"<unicode > string>\", line 16, column 3:\n when: ansible_pkg_mgr == 'yum'\n > ^"} > > > > If someone could help I would be very glad ! > > Thanks ! > JiElPe > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ansible Project" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ansible-project+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to ansible-project@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/01e8cbe9-15eb-4c6a-bc6c-ef9831b745d2%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.