# fact disappears after regather **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 2, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564 "2023-11-02T17:44:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mdidomenico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mdidomenico](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mdidomenico)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/1 "2023-11-02T17:44:12Z")
i have a local fact defined. when i first run ansible and it runs through the gather facts stage, the fact shows up just fine. i do some tasks and then regather the facts with setup - name: regather facts   ansible.builtin.setup: i can see the gather task run, but when i look for that same variable after the regather of the facts it's missing. the fact is ansible\_local.fstab and there's a dictionary under it, but the entire ansible\_local tree disappears i tried adding gather\_subset: all but that didn't see to make a difference. is there something else i need to do to rerun a fact and refresh the data? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/2 "2023-11-02T17:48:47Z")
Fact gathering overwrites all facts for a host, it does not update. ansible\_local is actually a subset of the facts gathered, it is updated to what ansible\_facts['local'] returns. ---
**Author:** ![mdidomenico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mdidomenico](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mdidomenico)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 5:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/3 "2023-11-02T17:57:39Z")
ok, my terminology was a little off, i'm okay with it overwriting then entire fact tree. but i'm still not sure why the entire branch of ansible\_local disappears after the second run of gathering. is there something different happening when the play runs "gather\_facts" version ansible.builtin.setup? (i wouldn't have thought so) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/4 "2023-11-02T19:51:41Z")
No, but it overwrites it even if the results from the current run are empty. Fact gathering is supposed to reflect 'current state' so if for example you remove a network interface, but had gathered facts about it before hand, when you refresh facts, it will disappear from those also. ---
**Author:** ![mdidomenico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mdidomenico](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mdidomenico)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/5 "2023-11-03T13:13:18Z")
okay, that’s understood. but i’m not sure my behavior is reflecting what you’re saying. either because ansible is doing something unexpected, or more likely i’m doing something wrong. what i see is using this playbook - name: dump vars hosts: all connection: local gather\_facts: true tasks: - name: disp var debug: var: ansible\_local.fstab - name: regather ansible.builtin.setup: - name: redisp var debug: var: ansible\_local.fstab ansible start gather facts the debug will output the variable (which is just a dict of /etc/fstab) regather the facts through setup the second debug then outputs ansible\_local.fstab: ‘VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED’ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/6 "2023-11-03T18:04:14Z")
I cannot reproduce, either both have it defined or undefined (depending if i add /etc/ansible/facts.d/fstab.fact or not). ---
**Author:** ![mdidomenico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mdidomenico](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mdidomenico)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/7 "2023-11-03T19:03:54Z")
it looks like it’s related to my fact pathing in some manner. in ansible.cfg we defined fact\_path=/ansible/facts and there are no facts in /etc/ansible/facts.d. if i copy the fstab.fact file from /ansible/facts to /etc/ansible/facts.d then i do in get the variable before and after the setup module runs in the play so does ansible reset like literally everything when you run the setup module? does it not re pull in the ansible.cfg where i have paths defined? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/fact-disappears-after-regather/38564/8 "2023-11-03T19:16:47Z")
No, the cfg setting affects 'fact gathering' but not specific module executions, you executing the 'setup' module or any other that returns facts is not exactly the same thing. Use module\_defaults or just set the local facts dir when you invoke setup.