# Own "role" cant find role **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** playbook, awx\ **Created:** [June 11, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296 "2024-06-11T09:18:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/1 "2024-06-11T09:18:02Z")
Hello again! I want to have a Playbook running in the background which checks for github releases. I used to learn the recommended folder structure, but the playbook cant find the roles. I Run the check\_releases.yaml. Structure: ansible-project/ ├── inventory │ └── hosts ├── playbooks │ └── check\_releases.yaml ├── roles │ ├── github\_release\_check │ │ ├── tasks │ │ │ ├── main.yaml │ │ │ └── load\_previous\_releases.yaml │ ├── rocketchat\_notify │ │ ├── tasks │ │ │ └── main.yaml ├── group\_vars │ └── all.yaml And this is my playbook: ```auto --- - name: Check for new GitHub releases and notify via Rocket.Chat hosts: localhost gather_facts: false roles: - github_release_check - rocketchat_notify ``` ![grafik](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/0/07a0dfa2b5bda180b98e8eba8d16bd52913141df.png) The Log: ```auto ERROR! the role 'github_release_check' was not found in /runner/project/functions/check_gitgub_releases/playbooks/roles:/runner/requirements_roles:/runner/.ansible/roles:/usr/share/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles:/runner/project/functions/check_gitgub_releases/playbooks The error appears to be in '/runner/project/functions/check_gitgub_releases/playbooks/check_releases.yaml': line 6, column 7, but may be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. The offending line appears to be: roles: - github_release_check ^ here ``` The githubreleasecheck main: ```auto --- - name: Check GitHub releases vars: releases_file: /tmp/github_releases.json block: - name: Fetch latest releases from GitHub uri: url: "https://api.github.com/repos/{{ item.owner }}/{{ item.name }}/releases/latest" return_content: yes headers: Accept: "application/vnd.github.v3+json" register: github_response loop: "{{ github_repos }}" changed_when: false - name: Parse GitHub release data set_fact: new_releases: "{{ github_response.results | selectattr('status', 'eq', 200) | map(attribute='json') | list }}" - name: Load previous releases data include_tasks: load_previous_releases.yml when: releases_file is file - name: Save current releases data copy: content: "{{ new_releases | to_nice_json }}" dest: "{{ releases_file }}" changed_when: false ``` Thank you very much again!! ---
**Author:** ![alvaroc20](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/alvaroc20/32/3485_2.png) [@alvaroc20](https://forum.ansible.com/u/alvaroc20)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 9:32am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/2 "2024-06-11T09:32:25Z")
Hi, I see that you are executing on localhost. It could be that you are executing within a runtime environment that does not include your role. In that case you might want to create a custom runtime environment that contains the roles ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 10:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/3 "2024-06-11T10:37:23Z")
Or what i found just a minute ago - drop all in the Playbooks folder: github\_release\_check/ ├── inventory │ └── hosts ├── playbooks │ ├── check\_releases.yaml │ ├── group\_vars │ │ └── all.yaml │ ├── roles │ │ ├── github\_release\_check │ │ │ ├── tasks │ │ │ │ ├── main.yaml │ │ │ │ └── load\_previous\_releases.yaml │ │ ├── rocketchat\_notify │ │ │ ├── tasks │ │ │ │ └── main.yaml ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 11:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/4 "2024-06-11T11:08:37Z")
This is exactly the same problem another user had ([here](http://forum.ansible.com/t/i-see-error-about-can-not-find-role-after-change-playbook-to-role/6247)). It makes me wonder if there’s a document out there, or some tool, or some “intro to Ansible” blog post, that’s recommending putting playbooks inside a `playbook` directory. @gothsome, do you remember where did you get the notion to create a separate `playbook` directory? ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/5 "2024-06-11T11:36:34Z")
Hello! Yes - i fouund it in this Reddit [Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/awx/comments/1aq8j0n/how_to_use_roles_in_awx/). But they dont explan why or sources and i cant even find a official guide stating it like this here. I dont knoww if its a bug i should report at the git? It chould be easy to set roles yourself with this folder sturucture without going the long way in integating it into a new enviroment. ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/6 "2024-06-11T11:58:20Z")
I see. That whole thread is about the same problem. It was “resolved” about 4 months ago, but not well. [Sample Ansible setup — Ansible Community Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/tips_tricks/sample_setup.html) contains the following: > Note > > * * * > > By default, Ansible assumes your playbooks are stored in one directory with roles stored in a sub-directory called `roles/`. With more tasks to automate, you can consider moving your playbooks into a sub-directory called `playbooks/`. If you do this, you must configure the path to your `roles/` directory using the `roles_path` setting in the `ansible.cfg` file. (Or override that `ansible.cfg` setting with an environment variable.) It can hardly be more plain than that. [sigh] ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/7 "2024-06-11T12:04:12Z")
i still answered him maybe he can continue. ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 12:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/8 "2024-06-11T12:06:08Z")
I searched like a madman for this page - i know i aleready read it, but i couldnt find it in the end again… Thank you! … i looked the example upd and its for me not 100% enough like in the first example there ist no place for the main playbook mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 12:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/9 "2024-06-11T12:46:57Z")
I found [here](https://spacelift.io/blog/ansible-best-practices) maybe an explanation why this movin in the Playbooks Folder makes the playbook run again. in the first exaple of the odfficial guide there is the main playbook missing and the secon one there ist the main playbook in the root and from then there are the roles and variables so if i move eberything like i did in my folders and ignore everything before the playbok folder i have the secon d method which is useed in the other guide. And with the use of the chatbots which get you something like this, which looks in the first look like the first example of the official docu. The first onoe i got from gpt was: ```auto projektname/ │ ├── inventories/ │ ├── production/ │ │ ├── hosts │ │ └── group_vars/ │ │ └── group1.yml │ ├── staging/ │ ├── hosts │ └── group_vars/ │ └── group1.yml │ ├── roles/ │ ├── rolle1/ │ │ ├── defaults/ │ │ ├── handlers/ │ │ ├── meta/ │ │ ├── tasks/ │ │ ├── templates/ │ │ └── vars/ │ └── rolle2/ │ ├── defaults/ │ ├── handlers/ │ ├── meta/ │ ├── tasks/ │ ├── templates/ │ └── vars/ │ ├── playbooks/ │ ├── playbook1.yml │ └── playbook2.yml │ ├── files/ │ └── ansible.cfg ``` But should be like: ```auto awx_project/ ├── inventory/ │ ├── production │ ├── staging │ └── testing ├── group_vars/ │ ├── group1.yml │ └── group2.yml ├── host_vars/ │ ├── host1.yml │ └── host2.yml ├── library/ ├── module_utils/ ├── filter_plugins/ ├── master.yml ├── webservers.yml ├── dbservers.yml └── roles/ ├── example_role/ │ ├── tasks/ │ │ └── main.yml │ ├── handlers/ │ │ └── main.yml │ ├── templates/ │ │ └── ntp.conf.j2 │ ├── files/ │ │ ├── bar.txt │ │ └── foo.sh │ ├── vars/ │ │ └── main.yml │ ├── defaults/ │ │ └── main.yml │ ├── meta/ │ │ └── main.yml │ ├── library/ │ ├── module_utils/ │ └── lookup_plugins/ └── another_role/ ├── tasks/ ├── handlers/ ├── templates/ ├── files/ ├── vars/ ├── defaults/ ├── meta/ ├── library/ ├── module_utils/ └── lookup_plugins/ ``` ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/10 "2024-06-11T14:25:55Z")
I have one project (and only one! out of a couple of dozen) where all my playbooks names are prefixed with “`apb_`” which means “Ansible PlayBook”. That keeps them together when listing the top level directory. Why I do that in only one project I can’t explain, but it somehow seems natural at this point. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Gnonthgol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e36b37/32.png) [@Gnonthgol](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Gnonthgol)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/11 "2024-06-11T14:41:18Z")
I have always done this, but can not remember where I picked this up. It might have been a practice I picked up when switching from puppet to ansible. And I might have been spreading this around to others as well. I have not had any issues as I just configure the roles directory in my ansible.cfg file. The main reason for having a playbooks folder is to clean up the workspace. Some of my projects have a few dozen playbooks so leaving them all in the root folder makes it quite messy. I would appreciate it if the search path for ansible were changed to also include the current working directory or detecting if the playbook is run within a playbooks directory and also search the parent directory. This is not only a problem for roles but also files and templates. ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/12 "2024-06-11T14:56:00Z")
> [@Gnonthgol](#): > > I would appreciate it if the search path for ansible were changed Well, that’s another whole issue by itself. There isn’t “a” search path for Ansible. Behold: ```sh $ ansible-config dump | grep -E -o '^\w*PATH?\b' ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH ANSIBLE_COW_PATH BECOME_PLUGIN_PATH COLLECTIONS_SCAN_SYS_PATH DEFAULT_ACTION_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_CACHE_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_CALLBACK_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_CLICONF_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_CONNECTION_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_FACT_PATH DEFAULT_FILTER_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_HTTPAPI_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_INVENTORY_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_LOG_PATH DEFAULT_LOOKUP_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH DEFAULT_MODULE_UTILS_PATH DEFAULT_NETCONF_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH DEFAULT_STRATEGY_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_TERMINAL_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_TEST_PLUGIN_PATH DEFAULT_VARS_PLUGIN_PATH DOC_FRAGMENT_PLUGIN_PATH GALAXY_TOKEN_PATH RETRY_FILES_SAVE_PATH ``` ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 9:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/13 "2024-06-12T21:22:40Z")
I had one more thought on this that maybe will benefit somebody. And since I’m an old fart, you get a campfire story out of it. When we first started playing with Ansible, we made a point of studying all the things you could tweak through `ansible.cfg`. The documents at that time were nowhere near as good as they are now, so that meant a lot of experimentation. We had one-off variants of one-off variants spreading all over the place. And we learned a lot. Q. What’s the most important thing we learned about tweaking `ansible.cfg`? A. “To not to.” _— 'Mater, the movie ‘Cars’, 2006_ Where we landed has one `ansible.cfg` file on any host where we develop or test/pre-test ansible code, and that’s `/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg`. The only things in it are there specifically to make it behave as much like our AWX instance as possible. The existence of any other `ansible.cfg` file on a host is considered an error. That’s not to say we don’t override defaults: `ANSIBLE_VAULT_IDENTITY`, `ANSIBLE_VAULT_IDENTITY_LIST`, and `ANSIBLE_INVENTORY` for example. But we don’t do it through `ansible.cfg` because the first one found wins. Any overriding of defaults we need to do, we do through environment variables. That way `/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg` still gets loaded, and the environment variables have the final say on any deviation from the default settings. The corollary is, **if you’re doing something elective that’s going to require overriding a default, you’re probably making a mistake**. For example, if you’re going to move your playbooks from the top level of your project to a bespoke `./playbook/` directory, that’s going to require a tweak to your DEFAULT\_ROLES\_PATH. And that tweak will need to be carried over for as long as you – or anybody else – uses that project. _That’s a clue that you’re making a mistake._ It’s bad enough to put that burden on yourself, but you’d be putting it on your co-workers and successors, too. Just, don’t! Make your stuff work with the defaults if reasonably possible. Any variation from defaults is easily determined via `$ ansible-config dump --only-changed` That also shows you where your snowflakes are coming from. Review it regularly and try to keep it to a minimum. Embrace and enjoy the ensuing sanity. ---
**Author:** ![gothsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/278dde/32.png) [@gothsome](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gothsome)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 8:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/14 "2024-06-13T08:07:32Z")
yeah this is the way i like to keep things always. because of this i used the ee above anything. What i leared that setting up an ee looked comlicated to handle, but its just an Container with custom settings which you upload at docker.hub and connect in AWX with the Execution enviroment. Just like installing anible operator updates:change the version in the configs and pull! 😆 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 8:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/own-role-cant-find-role/6296/15 "2024-07-13T08:07:42Z")
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