ansible.builtin.debug module – Print statements during execution

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name debug even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.debug for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

  • This module prints statements during execution and can be useful for debugging variables or expressions without necessarily halting the playbook.

  • Useful for debugging together with the ‘when:’ directive.

  • This module is also supported for Windows targets.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

msg

string

The customized message that is printed. If omitted, prints a generic message.

Default: "Hello world!"

var

string

A variable name to debug.

Mutually exclusive with the msg option.

Be aware that this option already runs in Jinja2 context and has an implicit {{ }} wrapping, so you should not be using Jinja2 delimiters unless you are looking for double interpolation.

verbosity

integer

A number that controls when the debug is run, if you set to 3 it will only run debug when -vvv or above.

Default: 0

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

action

Support: full

Indicates this has a corresponding action plugin so some parts of the options can be executed on the controller

async

Support: none

Supports being used with the async keyword

become

Support: none

Is usable alongside become keywords

bypass_host_loop

Support: none

Forces a ‘global’ task that does not execute per host, this bypasses per host templating and serial, throttle and other loop considerations

Conditionals will work as if run_once is being used, variables used will be from the first available host

This action will not work normally outside of lockstep strategies

check_mode

Support: full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.

connection

Support: none

Uses the target’s configured connection information to execute code on it

delegation

Support: partial

Aside from register and/or in combination with delegate_facts, it has little effect.

Can be used in conjunction with delegate_to and related keywords

diff_mode

Support: none

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform

Platforms: all

Target OS/families that can be operated against

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.assert

Asserts given expressions are true.

ansible.builtin.fail

Fail with custom message.

Examples

- name: Print the gateway for each host when defined
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: System {{ inventory_hostname }} has gateway {{ ansible_default_ipv4.gateway }}
  when: ansible_default_ipv4.gateway is defined

- name: Get uptime information
  ansible.builtin.shell: /usr/bin/uptime
  register: result

- name: Print return information from the previous task
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: result
    verbosity: 2

- name: Display all variables/facts known for a host
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: hostvars[inventory_hostname]
    verbosity: 4

- name: Prints two lines of messages, but only if there is an environment value set
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg:
    - "Provisioning based on YOUR_KEY which is: {{ lookup('ansible.builtin.env', 'YOUR_KEY') }}"
    - "These servers were built using the password of '{{ password_used }}'. Please retain this for later use."

Authors

  • Dag Wieers (@dagwieers)

  • Michael DeHaan