# notify can't be expanded **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 21, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/notify-cant-be-expanded/13732 "2013-10-21T16:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brian\_Candler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Brian\_Candler](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Candler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/notify-cant-be-expanded/13732/1 "2013-10-21T16:01:26Z")
Is it intentional that I can’t notify a handler with a dynamic name? ==\> roles/idmapd/tasks/main.yml \<== ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Candler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Brian\_Candler](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Candler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/notify-cant-be-expanded/13732/2 "2013-10-21T16:08:18Z")
The other thing which is odd is that if a handler does not exist, this is not reported as an error until there is an attempt to call it. changed: [[storage9.example.com](http://storage9.example.com)] ERROR: change handler (restart iptables) is not defined This is a pain because a change was made, but the handler not run. This means that after the handler is corrected, the next playbook run _won’t_ trigger it because it things the change has already been made. I haven’t reported this as a bug because it may be intentional behaviour. The only reason I can see for _not_ checking statically that each ‘notify’ line points to a valid handler is if the notify can be generated dynamically - but it appears it cannot. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/notify-cant-be-expanded/13732/3 "2013-10-22T01:22:12Z")
“Is it intentional that I can’t notify a handler with a dynamic name?” Yes.