file – read file contents

Synopsis

• This lookup returns the contents from a file on the Ansible controller’s file system.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Configuration	Comments
_terms - / required			path(s) of files to read
lstrip boolean	Choices: no ← yes		whether or not to remove whitespace from the beginning of the looked-up file
rstrip boolean	Choices: no yes ←		whether or not to remove whitespace from the ending of the looked-up file

Notes

Note

• if read in variable context, the file can be interpreted as YAML if the content is valid to the parser.

• this lookup does not understand ‘globing’, use the fileglob lookup instead.

Examples

- debug: msg="the value of foo.txt is {{lookup('file', '/etc/foo.txt') }}"

- name: display multiple file contents
  debug: var=item
  with_file:
    - "/path/to/foo.txt"
    - "bar.txt"  # will be looked in files/ dir relative to play or in role
    - "/path/to/biz.txt"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this lookup:

Key	Returned	Description
_raw -		content of file(s)

Status

• This lookup is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]

• This lookup is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

Authors

• Daniel Hokka Zakrisson <daniel@hozac.com>

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation, you can edit this document to improve it.

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.