vars – Lookup templated value of variables

New in version 2.5.

Synopsis

  • Retrieves the value of an Ansible variable.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Configuration Comments
_terms
- / required
The variable names to look up.
default
-
What to return if a variable is undefined.
If no default is set, it will result in an error if any of the variables is undefined.

Examples

- name: Show value of 'variablename'
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('vars', 'variabl' + myvar)}}"
  vars:
    variablename: hello
    myvar: ename

- name: Show default empty since i dont have 'variablnotename'
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('vars', 'variabl' + myvar, default='')}}"
  vars:
    variablename: hello
    myvar: notename

- name: Produce an error since i dont have 'variablnotename'
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('vars', 'variabl' + myvar)}}"
  ignore_errors: True
  vars:
    variablename: hello
    myvar: notename

- name: find several related variables
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('vars', 'ansible_play_hosts', 'ansible_play_batch', 'ansible_play_hosts_all') }}"

- name: alternate way to find some 'prefixed vars' in loop
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('vars', 'ansible_play_' + item) }}"
  loop:
    - hosts
    - batch
    - hosts_all

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description
_value
-
value of the variables requested.


Status

Authors

  • Ansible Core

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.