# How to debug 'changed' files from template module?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-changed-files-from-template-module/21651>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [June 2, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-changed-files-from-template-module/21651 "2016-06-02T19:13:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johannes\_Kastl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Johannes\_Kastl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Johannes_Kastl)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-changed-files-from-template-module/21651/1 "2016-06-02T19:13:11Z")

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Dear all,

I sometimes see files being reported as changed, although the contents  
(apart from the ansible\_managed) have not changed. The permissions are  
the same.

I thought that in these cases, where only the ansible\_managed line has  
changed, the file would stay the same. I get this behaviour a lot with  
other files, and I do not know why.

How to debug this? I am already running my playbook with -v.

Johannes

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**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-debug-changed-files-from-template-module/21651/2 "2016-06-10T14:50:02Z")

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There's nothing special about ansible\_managed, it's just a var like any other.  
If you change the contents of a file, handlers will fire.