ansible - examples of the different forms of yaml

play.yml

---
- hosts: foo
  tasks:
    - name: single line plain style
      file: path=/tmp/foo state=touch

    - name: multi line plain style
      file: path=/tmp/foo
        state=absent

    #- name: alternative multi line plain style
    #  file: 
    #    path=/tmp/foo
    #    state=absent

    - name: multi line double quoted style
      file: "path=/tmp/foo 
        state=touch"

    - name: multi line single quoted style
      file: 'path=/tmp/foo 
        state=absent'

    # With the yaml 'folded' style, anything in a new line (and indented) below a >
    # is essentially a single string that has been wrapped.  new line chars are not 
    # preserved unless the line is further indented or is an empty line.
    - name: multi line with folded style
      file: >
        path=/tmp/foo
        state=touch

    - name: multi line with yaml dict
      file:
        path: /tmp/foo
        state: absent

    - name: using folded style to insert content
      copy:
        dest: /tmp/foo
        content: >
          this is a string
          that will be one
          line in the file

    - shell: cat /tmp/foo
      register: result

    - debug: var=result

    - name: using literal style to insert content
      copy:
        dest: /tmp/foo
        content: |
          this is a string
          that will have
          new lines preserved

    - shell: cat /tmp/foo
      register: result

    - debug: var=result