ansible.builtin.vars lookup – Lookup templated value of variables

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 vars. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.vars for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same lookup plugin name.

Synopsis

  • Retrieves the value of an Ansible variable. Note: Only returns top level variable names.

Terms

Parameter

Comments

Terms

string / required

The variable names to look up.

Keyword parameters

This describes keyword parameters of the lookup. These are the values key1=value1, key2=value2 and so on in the following examples: lookup('ansible.builtin.vars', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...) and query('ansible.builtin.vars', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...)

Parameter

Comments

default

string

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.

Notes

Note

  • When keyword and positional parameters are used together, positional parameters must be listed before keyword parameters: lookup('ansible.builtin.vars', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2) and query('ansible.builtin.vars', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2)

Examples

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

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

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

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

- name: Access nested variables
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg="{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.vars', 'variabl' + myvar).sub_var }}"
  ignore_errors: True
  vars:
    variablename:
        sub_var: 12
    myvar: ename

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

Return Value

Key

Description

Return value

list / elements=any

value of the variables 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.

© 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/vars_lookup.html