[module] ansible : how to pass multiple commands

I faced the same issue. In my case, part of my variables were in a dictionary i.e. with_dict variable (looping) and I had to run 3 commands on each item.key. This solution is more relevant where you have to use with_dict dictionary with running multiple commands (without requiring with_items)

Using with_dict and with_items in one task didn't help as it was not resolving the variables.

My task was like:

- name: Make install git source
  command: "{{ item }}"
  with_items:
    - cd {{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.artifact_dir }}
    - make prefix={{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.artifact_dir }} all
    - make prefix={{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.artifact_dir }} install
  with_dict: "{{ git_versions }}"

roles/git/defaults/main.yml was:

---
tool: git
default_git: git_2_6_3

git_versions:
  git_2_6_3:
    git_tar_name: git-2.6.3.tar.gz
    git_tar_dir: git-2.6.3
    git_tar_url: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.6.3.tar.gz

The above resulted in an error similar to the following for each {{ item }} (for 3 commands as mentioned above). As you see, the values of tools_dir is not populated (tools_dir is a variable which is defined in a common role's defaults/main.yml and also item.value.git_tar_dir value was not populated/resolved).

failed: [server01.poc.jenkins] => (item=cd {# tools_dir #}/{# item.value.git_tar_dir #}) => {"cmd": "cd '{#' tools_dir '#}/{#' item.value.git_tar_dir '#}'", "failed": true, "item": "cd {# tools_dir #}/{# item.value.git_tar_dir #}", "rc": 2}
msg: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

Solution was easy. Instead of using "COMMAND" module in Ansible, I used "Shell" module and created a a variable in roles/git/defaults/main.yml

So, now roles/git/defaults/main.yml looks like:

---
tool: git
default_git: git_2_6_3

git_versions:
  git_2_6_3:
    git_tar_name: git-2.6.3.tar.gz
    git_tar_dir: git-2.6.3
    git_tar_url: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.6.3.tar.gz

#git_pre_requisites_install_cmds: "cd {{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.git_tar_dir }} && make prefix={{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.git_tar_dir }} all && make prefix={{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.git_tar_dir }} install"

#or use this if you want git installation to work in ~/tools/git-x.x.x
git_pre_requisites_install_cmds: "cd {{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.git_tar_dir }} && make prefix=`pwd` all && make prefix=`pwd` install"

#or use this if you want git installation to use the default prefix during make 
#git_pre_requisites_install_cmds: "cd {{ tools_dir }}/{{ item.value.git_tar_dir }} && make all && make install"

and the task roles/git/tasks/main.yml looks like:

- name: Make install from git source
  shell: "{{ git_pre_requisites_install_cmds }}"
  become_user: "{{ build_user }}"
  with_dict: "{{ git_versions }}"
  tags:
    - koba

This time, the values got successfully substituted as the module was "SHELL" and ansible output echoed the correct values. This didn't require with_items: loop.

"cmd": "cd ~/tools/git-2.6.3 && make prefix=/home/giga/tools/git-2.6.3 all && make prefix=/home/giga/tools/git-2.6.3 install",