# Lookup failing from file

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [September 17, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256 "2014-09-17T15:30:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anuj\_Agrawal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Anuj\_Agrawal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anuj_Agrawal)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/1 "2014-09-17T15:30:04Z")

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Running a playbook where contents are read from a file. It is an XML file.

Playbook yaml:

---

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**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/2 "2014-09-17T17:22:18Z")

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Hi Anuj, what version of Ansible are you using?

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**Author:** ![Anuj\_Agrawal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Anuj\_Agrawal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anuj_Agrawal)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/3 "2014-09-17T17:30:15Z")

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> Hi Anuj, what version of Ansible are you using?

1.7.1

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anuj\_Agrawal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Anuj\_Agrawal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anuj_Agrawal)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/4 "2014-09-17T19:11:40Z")

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Observation: It behaves strangely when there are spaces within a pair of quotes. And, my xml file has spaces within quotes in it.

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**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/5 "2014-09-17T19:17:25Z")

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If you do msg=“the value of contents is ‘{{XmlFileContents}}’” does it still raise an error?

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**Author:** ![Anuj\_Agrawal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Anuj\_Agrawal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anuj_Agrawal)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/6 "2014-09-17T19:25:42Z")

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> If you do msg="the value of contents is '{{XmlFileContents}}'" does it  
> still raise an error?

Yes, it still raises the same error.

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**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/7 "2014-09-18T00:13:53Z")

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Ok, could you open an issue for this on GitHub and I’ll take a look at it ASAP. You might also want to try checking out the version from GitHub and see if the issue is resolved there.

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Kontusz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Kontusz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Kontusz)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-failing-from-file/16256/8 "2014-09-19T06:02:44Z")

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Anuj Agrawal \<anujagrawal83@gmail.com\> napisał:

> Running a playbook where contents are read from a file. It is an XML  
> file.
> 
> Playbook yaml:  
> ---
> 
> - hosts: all  
> gather\_facts: false
> 
> vars:  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;XmlFileContents: "{{ lookup('file',  
> 'files/spring-proxy-handler-config.xml') }}"
> 
> tasks:  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- debug: msg="the value of contents is {{XmlFileContents}}"
> 
> Error:  
> fatal: [myhost.com] =\> A variable inserted a new parameter into the  
> module  
> args. Be sure to quote variables if they contain equal signs (for  
> example:  
> "{{var}}").
> 
> It is a xml file containing some config and the file definitely has  
> some  
> equal signs in it. However, I do not understand the error message and,  
> hence, cannot figure out a solution to my problem.

A workaround for this is using complex args:  
- debug:  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;msg: '{{ XmlFileContents }}'