# Feature RFC: allow task failures to trigger non-zero exit codes

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/feature-rfc-allow-task-failures-to-trigger-non-zero-exit-codes/14316>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [January 10, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/feature-rfc-allow-task-failures-to-trigger-non-zero-exit-codes/14316 "2014-01-10T19:01:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Bain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@Mike\_Bain](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_Bain)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/feature-rfc-allow-task-failures-to-trigger-non-zero-exit-codes/14316/1 "2014-01-10T19:01:36Z")

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+1 Having an option for ansible to return an exit code if a task fails would be good for us. We also have automated ansible scripts and rely on exit codes to know if the ansible commands worked or not.

I think of ansible as being great tool to run a users tasks. From this user centric point of view when a task fails the whole process has failed, even if technically ansible itself hasn’t actually failed. I do care if ansible fails, and also care if one of my tasks fails.

The current ansible return code setup feels like a browser not showing me an error response because it handled the web servers error correctly.

Currently, to get a non zero exit code on ansible task failures I pipe the ansible output into perl:

ansible-playbook | perl -pe ‘END { exit $status } $status=1 if /FAILED:|Failed:/;’

Cheers

Mike

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**Author:** ![Stephen\_Bunn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Stephen\_Bunn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Stephen_Bunn)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/feature-rfc-allow-task-failures-to-trigger-non-zero-exit-codes/14316/2 "2016-10-19T00:57:50Z")

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+1 here; having ansible-playbook return a 0 exit code when tasks fail make automating with a CI server more difficult then it has to be.

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**Author:** ![Josh\_Smift1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Josh\_Smift1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Josh_Smift1)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/feature-rfc-allow-task-failures-to-trigger-non-zero-exit-codes/14316/3 "2016-10-19T01:37:12Z")

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> +1 here; having ansible-playbook return a 0 exit code when tasks fail  
> make automating with a CI server more difficult then it has to be.

Do you have an example of this behavior? I feel like Ansible generally  
exits non-zero if a task fails. This playbook, for example:

&nbsp;&nbsp;- hosts: host1  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;gather\_facts: False  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;tasks:  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- command: touch /tmp/exit-code-test

&nbsp;&nbsp;- hosts: host1:host2  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;gather\_facts: False  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;tasks:  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- command: rm /tmp/exit-code-test

The rm fails on host2, where the file doesn't exist, and ansible-playbook  
exits non-zero.

Similarly:

&nbsp;&nbsp;ansible host1 -a 'rm /tmp/exit-code-test'

(when the file doesn't exist) exits non-zero.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-Josh (jbs@care.com)

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