# Error when using vars\_files and vars\_prompt in same playbook **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ansible-project\ **Created:** [January 31, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-when-using-vars-files-and-vars-prompt-in-same-playbook/12275 "2013-01-31T19:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-when-using-vars-files-and-vars-prompt-in-same-playbook/12275/1 "2013-01-31T19:27:37Z")
Andrew Berman wrote: > Hello, > > I'm new to Ansible and I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I'm doing > something wrong. I currently have a playbook which has vars\_prompt and > vars\_files in it and no matter what I do, I get a Python error. Here is > the playbook: > > --- > > - >     hosts: $hosts > >     user: root > >     vars\_prompt: >         - >             name: pg\_port >             prompt: "What port should Postgres run on?" >             private: no >             default: 5432 > >     vars\_files: >         - vars/postgres.yml >         - vars/global\_vars.yml > > It works only when I comment out the entire vars\_files block. Here is the > Python error: > > Traceback (most recent call last): >   File "/usr/bin/ansible-playbook", line 177, in \ >     sys.exit(main(sys.argv[1:])) >   File "/usr/bin/ansible-playbook", line 148, in main >     pb.run() >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ansible/playbook/\_\_init\_\_.py", > line 192, in run >     play = Play(self, play\_ds, play\_basedir) >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ansible/playbook/play.py", line > 83, in \_\_init\_\_ >     self.\_update\_vars\_files\_for\_host(None) >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ansible/playbook/play.py", line > 300, in \_update\_vars\_files\_for\_host >     raise errors.AnsibleError("%s must be stored as dictonary/hash: %s" % > filename4) > TypeError: not enough arguments for format string > > Can anyone help me? It looks like your vars\_files aren't formatted as dicts. They should look something like ---
**Author:** ![Arne\_Jacobs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arne\_Jacobs](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Arne_Jacobs)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-when-using-vars-files-and-vars-prompt-in-same-playbook/12275/2 "2013-01-31T19:44:23Z")
And if you update from Git, you’ll even see which one of your var\_files is invalid, because a friendly person named dhozac has fixed the format string error a few minutes ago ;-). ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-when-using-vars-files-and-vars-prompt-in-same-playbook/12275/3 "2013-01-31T19:56:28Z")
daniel\_hozac is a machine! ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Berman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b77776/32.png) [@Andrew\_Berman](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Berman)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/error-when-using-vars-files-and-vars-prompt-in-same-playbook/12275/4 "2013-01-31T20:03:42Z")
Yep, this was the problem. I had an extraneous hyphen in both files. Thanks for all the replies and help! Andrew