# how to debug ansible seg vault ?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-ansible-seg-vault/25090>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** ubuntu\
**Created:** [July 26, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-ansible-seg-vault/25090 "2017-07-26T10:50:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mike\_C1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mike\_C1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_C1)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-ansible-seg-vault/25090/1 "2017-07-26T10:50:32Z")

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im getting a seg fault when im running my ansible. Is there a way to turn on more debugging or anything that can help me find out the source ?

My `/var/log/syslog` has entries like this

```auto
Jul 26 10:47:26 ubuntu-xenial kernel: [497.822661] ansible-playboo[13890]: segfault at a9 ip 00000000004a7ee4 sp 00007ffdabc1b128 error 4 in python2.7[400000+2ea000]

```

I’ve tried `-vvvv` but no luck there.

Cheers

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**Author:** ![alikins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@alikins](https://forum.ansible.com/u/alikins)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-ansible-seg-vault/25090/2 "2017-07-26T21:08:22Z")

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Can you reproduce the segfault?

Can try running it under gdb:

# ‘bin/ansible-playbook’ or the path to you ansible-playbook install (`which ansible-playbook`)

gdb --batch -ex run --args python bin/ansible-playbook -vvv your\_playbook.yml

But maybe easier to use catchsegv to grab a stack trace

catchsegv ansible-playbook -vvv your\_playbook.yml

Since that log message points to a segfault in python, you likely need to install the debuginfo for

python first, something like:

`sudo apt-get install python2.7-dbg`

`Though the segfault is likely coming from a python C extension and not ansible`

`itself...`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mike\_C1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mike\_C1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_C1)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-ansible-seg-vault/25090/3 "2017-07-26T22:19:55Z")

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thanks for the info, ill give it a go.  
Im not convinced either that the seg fault is ansibles, but i need more info to see a stack the very least.