# inventory works ad-hoc but not for playbooks **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 26, 2023, 8:19am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260 "2023-07-26T08:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dulhaver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dulhaver/32/1061_2.png) [@dulhaver](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dulhaver)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 8:19am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260/1 "2023-07-26T08:19:26Z")
i have an inventory vm-414001-0315.ini that looks like this    [vm-414001-0315]    vm-414001-0315.step.zrz.dvz.cn-mv.de this works wit ad-hoc commands but throws an error with ansible-playbook #########################################################################anplay -i ../temp/vm-414001-0315.ini pg\_install.yml -e '{"postgresversion":"12.12";"targets":"vm-414001-0315"}' --list-hosts [WARNING]: \* Failed to parse /home/gwagner/repos/automation\_postgres/temp/vm-414001-0315.ini with ini plugin: We were unable to read either as JSON nor YAML, these are the errors we got from each: JSON: Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 27 (char 26) Syntax Error while loading YAML. found unexpected ':' The error appears to be in '\': line 1, column 37, but may be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. [WARNING]: Unable to parse /home/gwagner/repos/automation\_postgres/temp/vm-414001-0315.ini as an inventory source [WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available ERROR! We were unable to read either as JSON nor YAML, these are the errors we got from each: JSON: Expecting ',' delimiter: line 1 column 27 (char 26) Syntax Error while loading YAML.   found unexpected ':' The error appears to be in '\': line 1, column 37, but may be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. ---
**Author:** ![dulhaver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dulhaver/32/1061_2.png) [@dulhaver](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dulhaver)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 8:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260/2 "2023-07-26T08:29:05Z")
sorry, the command I am calling this with was not correct (copy'n'paste error): ansible-playbook -i ../temp/vm-414001-0315.ini pg\_install.yml -e '{"postgresversion":"12.12";"targets":"vm-414001-0315"}' --list-hosts ---
**Author:** ![Will\_McDonald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f475e1/32.png) [@Will\_McDonald](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Will_McDonald)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260/3 "2023-07-26T08:47:56Z")
I think the following error: Expecting ‘,’ delimiter: line 1 column 27 (char 26) Is pointing you towards your extra vars: ‘{“postgresversion”:“12.12” **;** “targets”:“vm-414001-0315”}’ You have a semi-colon ‘;’ at position 28, that should be a comma. ‘,’ ---
**Author:** ![dulhaver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dulhaver/32/1061_2.png) [@dulhaver](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dulhaver)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260/4 "2023-07-26T09:00:13Z")
yes, exactly, semicolon in my command is the culprit. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![dulhaver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dulhaver/32/1061_2.png) [@dulhaver](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dulhaver)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 9:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-works-ad-hoc-but-not-for-playbooks/38260/5 "2023-07-26T09:09:06Z")
another comment on the side group name in the inventory ideally would not contain ‘-’ characters. This does not produce a FATAL but at least ansible is not all to happy with it so this: