W3cubDocs

/Ansible

ansible.builtin.config lookup – Display the ‘resolved’ Ansible option values.

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 config. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.config 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 configuration setting, resolving all sources, from defaults, ansible.cfg, environment, CLI, and variables, but not keywords.
  • The values returned assume the context of the current host or inventory_hostname.
  • You can use ansible-config list to see the global available settings, add -t all to also show plugin options.

Terms

Parameter

Comments

Terms

string / required

The option(s) 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.config', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...) and query('ansible.builtin.config', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...)

Parameter

Comments

on_missing

string

Action to take if term is missing from config

Choices:

  • "error" (default): Issue an error message and raise fatal signal
  • "skip": Silently ignore
  • "warn": Issue a warning message and continue

plugin_name

string

added in ansible-core 2.12

The name of the plugin for which you want to retrieve configuration settings.

plugin_type

string

added in ansible-core 2.12

The type of the plugin referenced by ‘plugin_name’ option.

Choices:

  • "become"
  • "cache"
  • "callback"
  • "cliconf"
  • "connection"
  • "httpapi"
  • "inventory"
  • "lookup"
  • "netconf"
  • "shell"
  • "vars"

show_origin

boolean

added in ansible-core 2.16

Set this to return what configuration subsystem the value came from (defaults, config file, environment, CLI, or variables).

Choices:

  • false
  • true

Notes

Note

  • When keyword and positional parameters are used together, positional parameters must be listed before keyword parameters: lookup('ansible.builtin.config', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2) and query('ansible.builtin.config', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2)
  • Be aware that currently this lookup cannot take keywords nor delegation into account, so for options that support keywords or are affected by delegation, it is at best a good guess or approximation.

Examples

- name: Show configured default become user
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg="{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.config', 'DEFAULT_BECOME_USER')}}"

- name: print out role paths
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "These are the configured role paths: {{lookup('ansible.builtin.config', 'DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH')}}"

- name: find retry files, skip if missing that key
  ansible.builtin.find:
    paths: "{{lookup('ansible.builtin.config', 'RETRY_FILES_SAVE_PATH')|default(playbook_dir, True)}}"
    patterns: "*.retry"

- name: see the colors
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg="{{item}}"
  loop: "{{lookup('ansible.builtin.config', 'COLOR_OK', 'COLOR_CHANGED', 'COLOR_SKIP', wantlist=True)}}"

- name: skip if bad value in var
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg="{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.config', config_in_var, on_missing='skip')}}"
  var:
    config_in_var: UNKNOWN

- name: show remote user and port for ssh connection
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg={{q("ansible.builtin.config", "remote_user", "port", plugin_type="connection", plugin_name="ssh", on_missing='skip')}}

- name: show remote_tmp setting for shell (sh) plugin
  ansible.builtin.debug: msg={{q("ansible.builtin.config", "remote_tmp", plugin_type="shell", plugin_name="sh")}}

Return Value

Key

Description

Return value

any

A list of value(s) of the key(s) in the config if show_origin is false (default)

Optionally, a list of 2 element lists (value, origin) if show_origin is true

Returned: success

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2025 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/config_lookup.html