Ansible - setting alternatives with dynamic path

Alternatives are a decent way in linux to set different path executables for a certain program. I'd guess that the most commonly used alternatives on modern systems are java and python.

For this example, I'll use three different versions of java installed on a el8 system and use the 'community.general.alternatives' module to select the executable behind '/usr/bin/java'.

First, we need to define some variables and ensure java is installed:

 - name: deploy java
   hosts: test
   user: root
   become: false
   gather_facts: true
   collections:
     - community.general
   vars:
     java_selected_version: "{{ java_future_version }}"
     java_legacy_version: '1.8.0'
     java_current_version: '11'
     java_future_version: '17'
   tasks:
     - name: install java packages
       ansible.builtin.package:
         name:
           - "java-{{ java_legacy_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_legacy_version }}-openjdk-headless"
           - "java-{{ java_current_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_current_version }}-openjdk-headless"
           - "java-{{ java_future_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_future_version }}-openjdk-headless"
         state: present

Next, we need a task to get the binary path for the selected java version:

   - name: get java binary path
     ansible.builtin.shell:
       executable: /usr/bin/bash
       cmd: "rpm -ql java-{{ openjdk_version }}-openjdk-headless | grep -iE '\\/usr\\/lib\\/.*\\/bin\\/java$'" 
     register: java_binary_path
     changed_when: false

For the last task, we need to set the alternative and use the value 'selected' as the value for the state attribute. Using 'present' here will just ensure that there's a alternative named 'java' present but not ensure that the selected version is set as the alternative:

   - name: set java alternative path
     community.general.alternatives:
       name: java
       path: "{{ java_binary_path['stdout'] }}"
       link: /usr/bin/java
       state: selected

Here's the playbook pieced together:

 ---
 - name: deploy java
   hosts: test
   user: root
   become: false
   gather_facts: true
   collections:
     - community.general
   vars:
     java_selected_version: "{{ java_current_version }}"
     java_legacy_version: '1.8.0'
     java_current_version: '11'
     java_future_version: '17'
   tasks:
     - name: install java packages
       ansible.builtin.package:
         name:
           - "java-{{ java_legacy_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_legacy_version }}-openjdk-headless"
           - "java-{{ java_current_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_current_version }}-openjdk-headless"
           - "java-{{ java_future_version }}-openjdk"
           - "java-{{ java_future_version }}-openjdk-headless"
         state: present
     - name: get java path
       ansible.builtin.shell:
         executable: /usr/bin/bash
         cmd: "rpm -ql java-{{ java_selected_version }}-openjdk-headless | grep -iE 'bin\/java$'" 
       register: java_binary_path
       changed_when: false
     - name: set java alternative path
       community.general.alternatives:
         name: java
         path: "{{ java_binary_path['stdout'] }}"
         link: /usr/bin/java
         state: selected
 ...  

Feel free to comment and / or suggest a topic.