ansible : how to pass multiple commands

If a value in YAML begins with a curly brace ({), the YAML parser assumes that it is a dictionary. So, for cases like this where there is a (Jinja2) variable in the value, one of the following two strategies needs to be adopted to avoiding confusing the YAML parser:

Quote the whole command:

- command: "{{ item }} chdir=/src/package/"
  with_items:
  - ./configure
  - /usr/bin/make
  - /usr/bin/make install    

or change the order of the arguments:

- command: chdir=/src/package/ {{ item }}
  with_items:
  - ./configure
  - /usr/bin/make
  - /usr/bin/make install

Thanks for @RamondelaFuente alternative suggestion.

You can also do like this:

- command: "{{ item }}"
  args:
    chdir: "/src/package/"
  with_items:
    - "./configure"
    - "/usr/bin/make"
    - "/usr/bin/make install"

Hope that might help other

To run multiple shell commands with ansible you can use the shell module with a multi-line string (note the pipe after shell:), as shown in this example:

  - name: Build nginx 
    shell: |
      cd nginx-1.11.13
      sudo ./configure
      sudo make
      sudo make install