Ansible playbook to update and upgrade Debian hosts

debian_upgrade.yml

---

- hosts: all
  sudo: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Update packages list
      apt: update_cache=yes
      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

    - name: List packages to upgrade (1/2)
      shell: aptitude -q -F%p --disable-columns search "~U"
      register: updates
      changed_when: False
      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

    - name: List packages to upgrade (2/2)
      debug: msg="{{ updates.stdout_lines | count }} packages to upgrade ({{ updates.stdout_lines | join(', ') }})"
      when: (ansible_os_family == 'Debian' and updates.stdout_lines)

    - name: Upgrade packages
      apt: upgrade=safe
      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

    - name: Check what the new version is
      shell:  lsb_release -r | awk '{print $2}'
      changed_when: False
      register: new_release

    - name: Notify distribution version upgrade
      debug: msg="Debian has been upgraded from {{ ansible_lsb.release }} to {{ new_release.stdout }}"
      when: ansible_lsb.release != new_release.stdout

    - name: List services to restart (1/2)
      shell: checkrestart | grep ^service | awk '{print $2}'
      register: services
      changed_when: False
      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

    - name: List services to restart (2/2)
      debug: msg="{{ services.stdout_lines | count }} services to restart ({{ services.stdout_lines | join (', ') }})"
      when: (ansible_os_family == 'Debian' and services.stdout_lines)

register: updates
changed_when: False
when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'
+ failed_when: updates.rc < 0

solves an issue in Debian stretch.v9.0.

[1] fatal: [srvx]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "cmd": "aptitude -q -F%p --disable-co
lumns search "~U"", "delta": "0:00:00.803267", "end": "2017-07-01 15:20:00.668301", "failed": true, "rc": 1, "start": "2017-
07-01 15:19:59.865034", "stderr": "", "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": [], "warnings": []}

Better go with failed_when: updates.rc not in [0, 1]. If aptitude is not installed at all, it will return 127 which will silently pass with updates.rc < 0.

Hi, on the debian_upgrade.yml, which passed successfully and upgraded 3 Pi's yesterday, now one Pi is reporting:

`TASK [List packages to upgrade (1/2)] ***************************************************************************************************

fatal: [dabar3]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "cmd": "aptitude -q -F%p --disable-columns search "~U"", "delta": "0:00:03.330742", "end": "2017-11-05 07:38:08.981687", "failed": true, "msg": "non-zero return code", "rc": 1, "start": "2017-11-05 07:38:05.650945", "stderr": "", "stderr_lines": [], "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": []}`

That Pi is the only one running Pi Stretch, Any ideas?

Thanks for this.