# "META: ran handlers" informational message. What is it for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [May 3, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/meta-ran-handlers-informational-message-what-is-it-for/24390 "2017-05-03T14:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mpampis\_Mpigkonias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Mpampis\_Mpigkonias](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mpampis_Mpigkonias)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/meta-ran-handlers-informational-message-what-is-it-for/24390/1 "2017-05-03T14:34:11Z")
With the latest Ansible update (2.3) I noticed that whenever I run a playbook with -vv the informational message “META: ran handlers” comes. For example ` PLAYBOOK: yolo.yml \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 1 plays in yolo.yml PLAY [localhost] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* META: ran handlers TASK [some task] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path:/ansible/playbooks/yolo.yml:7 ok: [localhost] =\> {some output} META: ran handlers META: ran handlers PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 ` I understand that something was changed in 2.3 and this message appears (I haven’t noticed it before with 2.2), but what that actually means? In my playbook I call no handler, but this message seems to appear everytime. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/meta-ran-handlers-informational-message-what-is-it-for/24390/2 "2017-05-03T14:37:38Z")
It always 'happened' we just didn't display this, it is a new message for that verbosity level. The 'run handlers' always gets executed, which can be a noop if there have been no handlers notified. ---
**Author:** ![Mpampis\_Mpigkonias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Mpampis\_Mpigkonias](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mpampis_Mpigkonias)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/meta-ran-handlers-informational-message-what-is-it-for/24390/3 "2017-05-03T15:20:10Z")
Thanks for the fast reply Brian. I find it to be a little bit too much information for this verbosity level, but oh well… I have another short question if you could help me or point me to the documentation, because I couldn’t find anything. If you see in my example the ran handler process seems to be called 3 times. I knew that for sure the handlers are called after each play but it seems that they are called more often. Do you know exactly when? I guess that’s the reason that I see 3 times the “META: ran handlers” message. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/meta-ran-handlers-informational-message-what-is-it-for/24390/4 "2017-05-03T15:22:17Z")
They run after EACH section of a play (pre\_tasks, roles, tasks, post\_tasks).