ansible.builtin.include module – Include a task list

Note

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

DEPRECATED

Removed in:

version 2.16

Why:

it has too many conflicting behaviours depending on keyword combinations and it was unclear how it should behave in each case. new actions were developed that were specific about each case and related behaviours.

Alternative:

include_tasks, import_tasks, import_playbook

Synopsis

• Includes a file with a list of tasks to be executed in the current playbook.

• Lists of tasks can only be included where tasks normally run (in play).

• Before Ansible 2.0, all includes were ‘static’ and were executed when the play was compiled.

• Static includes are not subject to most directives. For example, loops or conditionals are applied instead to each inherited task.

• Since Ansible 2.0, task includes are dynamic and behave more like real tasks. This means they can be looped, skipped and use variables from any source. Ansible tries to auto detect this, but you can use the static directive (which was added in Ansible 2.1) to bypass autodetection.

• This module is also supported for Windows targets.

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
free-form string	This module allows you to specify the name of the file directly without any other options.

Notes

Note

• This is a core feature of Ansible, rather than a module, and cannot be overridden like a module.

• Include has some unintuitive behaviours depending on if it is running in a static or dynamic in play or in playbook context, in an effort to clarify behaviours we are moving to a new set modules (ansible.builtin.include_tasks, ansible.builtin.include_role, ansible.builtin.import_playbook, ansible.builtin.import_tasks) that have well established and clear behaviours.

• This module no longer supporst including plays. Use ansible.builtin.import_playbook instead.

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.import_playbook

Import a playbook.

ansible.builtin.import_role

Import a role into a play.

ansible.builtin.import_tasks

Import a task list.

ansible.builtin.include_role

Load and execute a role.

ansible.builtin.include_tasks

Dynamically include a task list.

Including and importing

More information related to including and importing playbooks, roles and tasks.

Examples

- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: task1

    - name: Include task list in play
      ansible.builtin.include: stuff.yaml

    - ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: task10

- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: task1

    - name: Include task list in play only if the condition is true
      ansible.builtin.include: "{{ hostvar }}.yaml"
      static: no
      when: hostvar is defined

Status

• This module will be removed in version 2.16. [deprecated]

• For more information see DEPRECATED.

Authors

• Ansible Core Team (@ansible)

Collection links

• Issue Tracker
• Repository (Sources)
• Communication