flush_handlers do not... flush handlers?

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1

Hi all,

I have a playbook with different role sections. Each section runs the same role, but with different variables. Now if one role signals a handler to restart a service with a variable name, only the first service is restarted.

Let me explain:

This is the handler:

- name: restart service
  service:
    name: "{{ service_name}}"
    state: restarted

So the service name differs per role. So only one service is restarted, the first one. Which makes sense, as the handler was already signaled for the first occurrence.

So I was reading and ran into meta: flush_handlers. So I added this at the end of a role-run, thinking that Ansible would restart the service, and flush the handlers. Well, it did run the handler, but it did not flush it. So when the second call was made to the handler, with a different service name, it was still just restarting the first service, as it was still in the handler.

How can this behavior be changed? I want to restart the service through a handler, and then clean the handler before the subsequent roles are executed.

Thanks!
Tom

2

OK, let me answer my own question. Despite what I read on Google (don’t trust Google too much), one can use certain variables in a handler name. So it is pretty easy! Just add the variable in the notify section and the name of the handler.