Ansible win_file is not deleting dirs when looping over item-CodePudding

I am running into a silly issue when i try to delete some folders with win_file

first i copy some folders on the remote itself from one dir to another

- name: copy folders first
  win_copy:
    src: '{{ item }}'
    dest: 'C:\folders\to\copy'
    remote_src: yes
  loop: '{{ paths_to_copy }}'
  register: copied_folders

then i filter only the 'path' of those folders to be deleted later in the play after executng some other tasks.

- name: filter paths to be deleted after some tasks
  set_fact:
     paths_to_delete: "{{ copied_folders | json_query('results[*].dest') }}"

i get this results:

  ok: [<computer>] => {
"ansible_facts": {
    "paths_to_delete": [
        "C:\\folders\\to\\copy\\1",
        "C:\\folders\\to\\copy\\2",
        "C:\\folders\\to\\copy\\3",
        "C:\\folders\\to\\copy\\4"
    ]
},
"changed": false

}

all seems good but the playbook is failing when i loop over 'paths_to_delete' because it returns with all those 4 paths as ONE path.

- name: clean up temporary copied directories
  win_file:
   path: '{{ item }}'
   state: absent
  loop:
    - '{{ paths_to_delete }}'

 "msg": "Get-AnsibleParam: Parameter 'path' has an invalid path '['C:\\\\folders\\\\to\\\\copy\\\\1','C:\\\\folders\\\\to\\\\copy\\\\2','C:\\\\folders\\\\to\\\\copy\\\\3','C:\\\\folders\\\\to\\\\copy\\\\4'] specified."

why it is not looping over this list and deletes them one by one? i am using the same mechanism in the first copy task, looping over a list and it DOES copy the folder one by one without any issue.

Any help would be much appreciated.

CodePudding user response：

Your loop syntax is incorrect.

  loop:
    - '{{ paths_to_delete }}'

This nests the list inside another list with a single element. What you want to do is loop over the original list:

  loop: '{{ paths_to_delete }}'