Can the templates module handle multiple templates / directories?

Question

I believe the Ansible copy module can take a whole bunch of "files" and copy them in one hit. This I believe can be achieved by copying a directory recursively.

Can the Ansible template module take a whole bunch of "templates" and deploy them in one hit? Is there such a thing as deploying a folder of templates and applying them recursively?

Answer 1

The template module itself runs the action on a single file, but you can use with_filetree to loop recursively over a specified path:

- name: Ensure directory structure exists
  file:
    path: '{{ templates_destination }}/{{ item.path }}'
    state: directory
  with_filetree: '{{ templates_source }}'
  when: item.state == 'directory'

- name: Ensure files are populated from templates
  template:
    src: '{{ item.src }}'
    dest: '{{ templates_destination }}/{{ item.path }}'
  with_filetree: '{{ templates_source }}'
  when: item.state == 'file'

And for templates in a single directory you can use with_fileglob.