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I'm building an Ansible playbook in which I want to make a backup of a database in case I need to upgrade the software. For this I want to compare the highest version number that is available to the version number that is installed. In case the latest version is hight than the installed version I'll back up the database.

The problem however is that I cannot find a good way to sort version numbers in Ansible. The standard sort filter sorts on strings instead of numbers/versions.

This is what I'm doing right now:

- name: Get package version

  yum:

    list: package

  register: software_version



- name: Read which version is installed and available

  set_fact:

    software_version_installed: "{{ software_version | json_query("results[?yumstate=='installed'].version") | sort | last }}"

    software_version_available: "{{ software_version | json_query("results[?yumstate=='available'].version") | sort | last }}"



- name: Backup old database file on remote host

  copy:

    src: "{{ software.database_path }}"

    dest: "{{ software.database_path }}_{{ ansible_date_time.date }}_v{{ software_version_installed }}"

    remote_src: yes

  when: software_version_installed is version(software_version_available, "<")

The playbook above works, as long as version numbers stay underneath the number 10 (e.g. 1.2.3, but not 1.10.1) since sorting is performed like a string. When the version number has to sort e.g. 1.2.3 and 1.10.1, it will take 1.2.3 as latest version.

To show the issue:

- name: Read which version is installed and available

  set_fact:

    software_versions: [ "2.5.0", "2.9.0", "2.10.0", "2.11.0" ]



- name: Debug

  debug:

    var: software_versions | sort



TASK [grafana : Debug]**********************************

ok: [localhost] => {

    "software_versions | sort": [

        "2.10.0",

        "2.11.0",

        "2.5.0",

        "2.9.0"

    ]

}

Does anyone know a good way to sort version numbers in Ansible?

I can't confirm your experience that:

sorting is performed like a string.

See the example below

  vars:

    version_installed: "1.10.1"

    versions:

      - "1.1.3"

      - "1.2.3"

      - "1.7.5"

      - "1.10.7"

  tasks:

    - debug: msg="{{ item }} is newer than {{ version_installed }}"

      loop: "{{ versions }}"

      when: item is version(version_installed, '>')



> ansible-playbook test-versions.yml | grep msg

"msg": "1.10.7 is newer than 1.10.1"

It's now solved in another way. Instead of sorting the versions I compared the current version to all available versions.

• I've started by setting an update variable to false


• Next I compared the installed version to every available version


• If installed version > current version, set the update variable to true

The task performing the backup will only be performed when the update variable is true.

- name: Get package version

  yum:

    list: package

  register: software_version



- name: Read which version is installed and available

  set_fact:

    software_update: false

    software_version_installed: "{{ software_version | json_query("results[?yumstate=='installed'].version") | last }}"

    software_version_available: "{{ software_version | json_query("results[?yumstate=='available'].version") }}"



- name: Check if upgrade is needed

  set_fact:

    software_update: true

  when: software_version_installed is version(item, "<")

  with_items: "{{ software_version_available }}"



- name: Backup old database file on remote host

  copy:

    src: "{{ software.database_path }}"

    dest: "{{ software.database_path }}_{{ ansible_date_time.date }}_v{{ software_version_installed }}"

    remote_src: yes

  when: software_update