CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ansible
Joe Friedeggs
Joe Friedeggs

Reputation: 155

Understanding ansible tagging of roles in the playbook

Confused as to whether role tagging from the playbook is working properly, and, if so, the philosophy behind it.

Playbook

- hosts: Test-c7-1
  roles:
    - role: test.tag
      tags: tag2

Role/task

---
- debug:
    msg: "task - tag1 set"
  tags: tag1

- debug:
    msg: "task - tag2 set"
  tags: tag2

- debug:
    msg: "task - always set"
  tags: always

- debug:
    msg: "task - NO TAG"

When a matching tag is passed in, the role is run, and everything in the task list is executed regardless of tagging.

Matching tag:

ansible-playbook playbook/tagtester.yml --tags "tag2"

PLAY [Test-c7-1] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1]

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - tag1 set"
}

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - tag2 set"
}

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - always set"
}

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - NO TAG"
}

PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Test-c7-1                  : ok=5    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

When an non-matching tag is passed, the role is STILL run, BUT the (non-matching) tag is passed down to the tasks, and only tasks with that tag (or tagged 'always') are executed.

Non-matching tag:

 ansible-playbook playbook/tagtester.yml --tags "tag1"

PLAY [Test-c7-1] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1]

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - tag1 set"
}

TASK [test.tag : debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [Test-c7-1] => {
    "msg": "task - always set"
}

PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Test-c7-1                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

Is this expected behavior?
And, is there a way to tag a role (as well as a task - include_role) in a playbook to only filter whether that role itself is executed or not based on that tag passed in at execution?

Upvotes: 9

Views: 22542

Answers (1)

techraf
techraf

Reputation: 68559

Is this expected behavior?

Yes, it is.

And, is there a way to tag a role (as well as a task - include_role) in a playbook to only filter whether that role itself is executed or not based on that tag passed in at execution?

Since Ansible version 2.4 there are three ways of using roles:

With import_role and roles declaration, Ansible concatenates the tags specified in the declaration and executes the tasks.

include_role works like a stand-alone task, i.e. it itself observes the tags.

Notes

- The same rule applies to when conditions.

- Before Ansible 2.4 include_role worked like import_role now.

- Reference Differences Between Static and Dynamic

Upvotes: 7

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