ansible.builtin.varnames lookup – Lookup matching variable names

Note

This lookup plugin is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name varnames even without specifying the collections: keyword. However, we recommend you use the FQCN for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same lookup plugin name.

New in version 2.8: of ansible.builtin

Synopsis

  • Retrieves a list of matching Ansible variable names.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

_terms

string / required

List of Python regex patterns to search for in variable names.

Examples

- name: List variables that start with qz_
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('varnames', '^qz_.+')}}"
  vars:
    qz_1: hello
    qz_2: world
    qa_1: "I won't show"
    qz_: "I won't show either"

- name: Show all variables
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('varnames', '.+')}}"

- name: Show variables with 'hosts' in their names
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('varnames', 'hosts')}}"

- name: Find several related variables that end specific way
  debug: msg="{{ lookup('varnames', '.+_zone$', '.+_location$') }}"

Return Values

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

Key

Description

_value

list / elements=string

List of the variable names requested.

Returned: success

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team

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.