# Lookup variable strange behaviour **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ansible-project\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368 "2013-02-16T20:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/1 "2013-02-16T20:55:50Z")
This is fixed in Ansible's 1.1 development branch. The workaround for anyone who does not yet want to upgrade, is to upgrade, but failing that, you can use the "with\_file" or "with\_env" version instead and just reference the array when you use it. ---
**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f6c823/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Paczkowski)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/2 "2013-02-17T13:34:58Z")
Thanks for help. Is evaluating $LOOKUP again on every use of the variable holding it part of this? The date keeps changing, quite annoyingly. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/3 "2013-02-17T14:19:20Z")
Evaluation is meant to be lazy. We can pretty easily make an option to cache. Can you file a github ticket so we don't forget? Assume you are using $PIPE ? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f6c823/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Paczkowski)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/4 "2013-02-17T14:27:38Z")
Here it goes: [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/2108](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/2108) Again thanks for help! BTW Ansible rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Lorin\_Hochstein1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@Lorin\_Hochstein1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lorin_Hochstein1)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/5 "2013-02-17T16:23:44Z")
+1, great feature. Tomek, This is what we currently do (you could use this as a workaround until the feature lands):   tasks:   - name: get the current time for a timestamp     local\_action: command date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S     register: time Then we use ${time.stdout} where we need the timestamp variable. Take care, Lorin ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/6 "2013-02-17T16:31:48Z")
>   tasks: >   - name: get the current time for a timestamp >     local\_action: command date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S >     register: time Good idea. This will still result in a different time per node, but not if you select the time from a particular host via hostvars. Give me an hour, but it should be less. Set your stopwatches 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/7 "2013-02-17T16:44:07Z")
Done, here's my test playbook. I'm not sure i'm crazy about this useful cache logic not being accessible to ALL lookup plugins, so we may generalize the "with\_\*\_once" behavior later so the caching is done at a higher level. I'll file a ticket to do so, though this works now and we'll keep this syntax. My watch says 11 minutes 🙂 --Michael ---
**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f6c823/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Paczkowski)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/8 "2013-02-17T17:27:36Z")
That was fast. I went out for dinner and came back to see this done. It works like charm now. Kudos to you Michael. Once again thanks for help! ---
**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f6c823/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Paczkowski](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Paczkowski)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/9 "2013-02-17T18:41:06Z")
I’ve found bug in this, please see comment on the github issue. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lookup-variable-strange-behaviour/12368/10 "2013-02-17T18:45:15Z")
Yeah, if tasks have names it doesn't quite work right. I'll figure it out, if others want to beat me to it, go ahead. Working on some other things first.