ansible.builtin.import_role module – Import a role into a play

Note

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

Synopsis

  • Much like the roles: keyword, this task loads a role, but it allows you to control when the role tasks run in between other tasks of the play.
  • Most keywords, loops and conditionals will only be applied to the imported tasks, not to this statement itself. If you want the opposite behavior, use ansible.builtin.include_role instead.
  • Does not work in handlers.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

allow_duplicates

boolean

Overrides the role’s metadata setting to allow using a role more than once with the same parameters.

Choices:

  • false
  • true ← (default)

defaults_from

string

File to load from a role’s defaults/ directory.

Default: "main"

handlers_from

string

added in Ansible 2.8

File to load from a role’s handlers/ directory.

Default: "main"

name

string / required

The name of the role to be executed.

public

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.17

This option dictates whether the role’s vars and defaults are exposed to the play.

Variables are exposed to the play at playbook parsing time, and available to earlier roles and tasks as well unlike include_role.

The default depends on the configuration option :ref:`default_private_role_vars`.

Choices:

  • false
  • true ← (default)

rolespec_validate

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.11

Perform role argument spec validation if an argument spec is defined.

Choices:

  • false
  • true ← (default)

tasks_from

string

File to load from a role’s tasks/ directory.

Default: "main"

vars_from

string

File to load from a role’s vars/ directory.

Default: "main"

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

action

Support: none

While this action executes locally on the controller it is not governed by an action plugin

Indicates this has a corresponding action plugin so some parts of the options can be executed on the controller

async

Support: none

Supports being used with the async keyword

become

Support: none

Is usable alongside become keywords

bypass_host_loop

Support: partial

While the import can be host specific and runs per host it is not dealing with all available host variables, use an include instead for those cases

Forces a ‘global’ task that does not execute per host, this bypasses per host templating and serial, throttle and other loop considerations

Conditionals will work as if run_once is being used, variables used will be from the first available host

This action will not work normally outside of lockstep strategies

bypass_task_loop

Support: partial

The task itself is not looped, but the loop is applied to each imported task

These tasks ignore the loop and with_ keywords

check_mode

Support: full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.

connection

Support: none

Uses the target’s configured connection information to execute code on it

core

Support: full

This is a ‘core engine’ feature and is not implemented like most task actions, so it is not overridable in any way via the plugin system.

delegation

Support: none

Since there are no connection nor facts, there is no sense in delegating imports

Can be used in conjunction with delegate_to and related keywords

diff_mode

Support: none

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

ignore_conditional

Support: none

While the action itself will ignore the conditional, it will be inherited by the imported tasks themselves

The action is not subject to conditional execution so it will ignore the when: keyword

platform

Platforms: all

Target OS/families that can be operated against

tags

Support: full

Tags are not interpreted for this action, they are applied to the imported tasks

Allows for the ‘tags’ keyword to control the selection of this action for execution

until

Support: full

Denotes if this action obeys until/retry/poll keywords

Notes

Note

  • Handlers are made available to the whole play.
  • Since Ansible 2.7 variables defined in vars and defaults for the role are exposed to the play at playbook parsing time. Due to this, these variables will be accessible to roles and tasks executed before the location of the ansible.builtin.import_role task.
  • Unlike ansible.builtin.include_role variable exposure is not configurable, and will always be exposed.

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.import_playbook

Import a playbook.

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.

Re-using Ansible artifacts

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

Examples

- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - ansible.builtin.import_role:
        name: myrole

    - name: Run tasks/other.yaml instead of 'main'
      ansible.builtin.import_role:
        name: myrole
        tasks_from: other

    - name: Pass variables to role
      ansible.builtin.import_role:
        name: myrole
      vars:
        rolevar1: value from task

    - name: Apply condition to each task in role
      ansible.builtin.import_role:
        name: myrole
      when: not idontwanttorun

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team (@ansible)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2024 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/import_role_module.html