# playbook without hosts desribed **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 7, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977 "2019-08-07T16:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Veera](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/veera/32/4107_2.png) [@Veera](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Veera)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/1 "2019-08-07T16:55:02Z")
Hi, Is there a way that we can use a playbook with no “hosts: XXX” defined. All the servers are available in the inventory file defined in the ansible.cfg , but the playbooks have to be run based on a single or multiple client on the ad-hoc request based. Is there a way to remove ` hosts: all ` and have the same playbook working for security reasons ? In the meantime when a play is to be executed in all the clients they have to be mentioned from the command line(or jenkins) ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/2 "2019-08-07T17:37:04Z")
> Hi, > > Is there a way that we can use a playbook with no "hosts: XXX" defined. No, hosts is a required attribute for a play. > All the servers are available in the inventory file defined in the > ansible.cfg , but the playbooks have to be run based on a single or > multiple client on the ad-hoc request based. You can always set hosts: all and use the --limit to only run on some hosts. > Is there a way to remove > >   hosts: all > >   and have the same playbook working for security reasons ? I don't understand what you mean by "for security reasons". >   In the meantime when a play is to be executed in all the clients they have > to be mentioned from the command line(or jenkins) You can use a variable for hosts an set it with extra vars on the command line - hosts: '{{ myvar }}' ansible-playbook pb.yml -e myvar=all ---
**Author:** ![Veera](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/veera/32/4107_2.png) [@Veera](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Veera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/3 "2019-08-08T01:53:39Z")
Hi kai, Thanks for the inputs. “for security reasons”. - I mean that we have disabled gather\_facts for better performance. And we want other users to play the playbook with access to the same inventory . I am looking for a way to avoid them running “ansible-playbook pb.yml -e myvar=all” and to always use “myvar=hostname.” is there a way to stop a particular user to stop using " myvar=all" based on inventory or other modes? ---
**Author:** ![mailinglists-ansible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@mailinglists-ansible](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mailinglists-ansible)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 5:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/4 "2019-08-08T05:57:40Z")
Hi, you could start with a task running against the localhost doing `jinja2` magic and see, if `myvar=!al` and then run the next task with ```auto hosts: "{{ myvar}}" ``` Greets J ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/5 "2019-08-08T07:12:37Z")
You could use this   hosts: '{{ "" if myvar == "all" else myvar }}' If myvar is all hosts becomes empty sting and that is not allowed and Ansible will fail. But this is easily defeated but adding a comma at the end myvar=all, To fix that you would need to use the search/regex[1] test and craft a appropriate regexp for this. [1] [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user\_guide/playbooks\_tests.html#testing-strings](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_tests.html#testing-strings) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/6 "2019-08-08T17:33:44Z")
Ansible is not designed to limit users in this way, you want something like tower/awx that can limit access to what users execute. ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/7 "2019-08-08T17:36:07Z")
But it works so I don't see a problem. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-without-hosts-desribed/30977/8 "2019-08-08T17:36:57Z")
its easy to bypass, if it is a security issue, they should really look at something that uses RBAC.