Ansible: iterate over a results return value yum module

Question

Problem: I have many nodes that need package updates. Some of the nodes have these packages installed and some do not. The goal is to 1. check if a package is installed us

Answer 1

The ansible.builtin.yum: module already updates only if a package is installed. You can loop over a list of items using the loop: directive, or if it's a short list, declare the variable within the task block and use the yum module's ability to operate over a list. Like the quick and dirty version.

- name: update a list of packages
  yum:
    name: "{{ packagelist }}"
    state: latest
  vars:
    packagelist:
      - acpid
      - c-ares 
      - automake

Or, even simpler:

- name: update a list of packages
  yum:
    name:
      - acpid
      - c-ares 
      - automake
    state: latest

Many more examples are available and all the parameters are defined here: Ansible Docs article about yum