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

Authors

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.