# cache\_valid\_time doesn't work **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Developer\ **Created:** [December 4, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063 "2013-12-04T18:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@SLS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/SLS)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/1 "2013-12-04T18:45:32Z")
Hi there, I can’t get the cache\_valid\_time parameter to take. Below is the relevant section of my playbook. - name: ensure apache installed apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present update\_cache=yes cache\_valid\_time=3600 with\_items: - apache2 notify: - restart apache I’m running this via a local vagrant box and am wondering if this has anything to do with the problem. Each time I run ‘vagrant provision’, cache\_valid\_time is ignored and the cache is updated. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/2 "2013-12-04T19:12:56Z")
> I can't get the cache\_valid\_time parameter to take. Below is the relevant > section of my playbook. > > - name: ensure apache installed >     apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present update\_cache=yes > cache\_valid\_time=3600 >     with\_items: >       - apache2 >     notify: >     - restart apache > > I'm running this via a local vagrant box and am wondering if this has > anything to do with the problem. Each time I run 'vagrant provision', > cache\_valid\_time is ignored and the cache is updated. This parameter makes the module check the timestamp on two paths: - first /var/lib/apt/periodic/update-success-stamp - and if that was not available, /var/lib/apt/lists​​/ And compares that timestamp to the current time to caclulate the that valid\_time. Can You check on you host if you have those files on those locations? Serge ---
**Author:** ![SLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@SLS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/SLS)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/3 "2013-12-04T19:40:40Z")
Thanks for the quick response- -rw-r–r-- 1 root root 0 May 5 2013 update-success-stamp and /var/lib/apt/lists/ has many _.ubuntu.com\_ubuntu\_dists\_raring-_ files with varying dates (ranging from Oct 2012 to today). My results for ‘date’ are Wed Dec 4 19:26:56 UTC 2013. If I’m understanding correctly, it’s updating the cache because the update-success-stamp is there with a \> 3600 second timestamp (which is how it should work). So the question is why isn’t that timestamp getting updated. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/4 "2013-12-04T19:43:21Z")
​This is (at least on Ubuntu, not sure if Debian or others have this) updated by $ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/15update-stamp APT::Update::Post-Invoke-Success {“touch /var/lib/apt/periodic/update-success-stamp 2\>/dev/null || true”;}; Do you have that config snippet? Serge ---
**Author:** ![SLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@SLS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/SLS)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/5 "2013-12-04T19:44:50Z")
Yes. It is there. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/6 "2013-12-04T19:49:44Z")
Does the timestamp get updated when you manually do an update?​ ​Either way, seems not to be a bug in that module. ---
**Author:** ![SLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@SLS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/SLS)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/7 "2013-12-04T20:31:21Z")
Agreed. This not an ansible module issue, but a Vagrantfile configuration fix. The problem was with the V A manual update showed the errors and since it wasn’t successful, the file didn’t get touched. Err [http://security.ubuntu.com](http://security.ubuntu.com) raring-security Release.gpg Could not resolve ‘[security.ubuntu.com](http://security.ubuntu.com)’ Fetched 958 kB in 4min 19s (3,692 B/s) Reading package lists… Done W: Failed to fetch [http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/raring-security/Release.gpg](http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/raring-security/Release.gpg) Could not resolve ‘[security.ubuntu.com](http://security.ubuntu.com)’ W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead. I added the following to my Vagrantfile and it worked like a charm. config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |virtualbox| virtualbox.customize [“modifyvm”, :id, “–natdnshostresolver1”, “on”] end Thanks for all your help. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/8 "2013-12-04T20:48:57Z")
​Hm, makes me wonder if we should let apt give some feedback (as in, setting some return value) when that happens? If I update for adding a particular repo I just added, I would want to know it fails. ​ ---
**Author:** ![SLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@SLS](https://forum.ansible.com/u/SLS)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/cache-valid-time-doesnt-work/14063/9 "2013-12-05T02:05:12Z")
Yes, that would have probably helped. Thanks again.