"Create dashboard folders" fails if it finds no folders, using Ansible 2.19

[mtraynham]

Ansible team recently made a change which is much more strict on conditionals and loops.

With Ansible 2.19, these two steps will fail if the custom dashboards directory only contains JSON files and no sub-directories.

https://github.com/grafana/grafana-ansible-collection/blob/6.0.4/roles/grafana/tasks/dashboards.yml#L174-L194

The first task with ansible.builtin.find sets the __dashboards_subdirs to a string value of "All paths examined" instead of the expected list.

The second task then fails with the following,

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : Create dashboard folders] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: ansible/.collections/ansible_collections/grafana/grafana/roles/grafana/tasks/dashboards.yml:187
[ERROR]: The `loop` value must resolve to a 'list', not 'str'.
Origin: ansible/.collections/ansible_collections/grafana/grafana/roles/grafana/tasks/dashboards.yml:195:17

193             group: "grafana"
194             mode: "0755"
195           loop: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs.files | map(attribute='path') | sort | regex_replace(grafana_dashboards_...
                    ^ column 17

Provide a list of items/templates, or a template resolving to a list.

fatal: [grafana-0]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "The `loop` value must resolve to a 'list', not 'str'."
}

[mtraynham]

Well now I'm just confused, because it appears the variable is a list. I set the loop value to a fact and debugged it. But still see the error.

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : foo] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [grafana-0]

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : Foo] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [grafana-0] => {
    "__dashboards_subdirs_tmp": "['ansible']"
}

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : Create dashboard folders] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
[ERROR]: The `loop` value must resolve to a 'list', not 'str'.
Origin: ansible/.collections/ansible_collections/grafana/grafana/roles/grafana/tasks/dashboards.yml:199:17

197             group: "grafana"
198             mode: "0755"
199           loop: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs_tmp }}"
                    ^ column 17

Provide a list of items/templates, or a template resolving to a list.

fatal: [grafana-0]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The `loop` value must resolve to a 'list', not 'str'."}

Here's the changes I did,

        - name: foo
          set_fact:
            __dashboards_subdirs_tmp: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs.files | map(attribute='path') | sort | regex_replace(grafana_dashboards_dir + '/*', '') }}"

        - name: Foo
          debug:
            var: __dashboards_subdirs_tmp

        - name: "Create dashboard folders"
          ansible.builtin.file:
            path: "{{ grafana_ini.paths.data }}/dashboards/{{ item }}"
            state: "directory"
            recurse: false
            owner: "grafana"
            group: "grafana"
            mode: "0755"
          loop: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs_tmp }}"
          become: true
          register: __dashboards_dir_created
          when: not ansible_check_mode

[mtraynham]

Strangely fixed it by removing that | regex_replace(...) pipe.

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : foo] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [grafana-0]

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : Foo] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [grafana-0] => {
    "__dashboards_subdirs_tmp": [
        "<redacted>/ansible/playbooks/grafana/ansible"
    ]
}

TASK [grafana.grafana.grafana : Create dashboard folders] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [grafana-0] => (item=<redacted>/ansible/playbooks/grafana/ansible)

        - name: foo
          set_fact:
            __dashboards_subdirs_tmp: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs.files | map(attribute='path') | sort }}"

        - name: Foo
          debug:
            var: __dashboards_subdirs_tmp

        - name: "Create dashboard folders"
          ansible.builtin.file:
            path: "{{ grafana_ini.paths.data }}/dashboards/{{ item }}"
            state: "directory"
            recurse: false
            owner: "grafana"
            group: "grafana"
            mode: "0755"
          loop: "{{ __dashboards_subdirs_tmp | to_json | from_json }}"
          become: true
          register: __dashboards_dir_created
          when: not ansible_check_mode

[mtraynham]

I suspect regex_replace should be wrapped in a map() function.

[mtraynham]

Would be corrected with #439