# Possible feature requrest: start execution at play number in a playbook **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [June 8, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438 "2015-06-08T21:04:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steven\_Truong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Steven\_Truong](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steven_Truong)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/1 "2015-06-08T21:04:21Z")
Hi all, Please excuse for my ignorance if there is a clean way to do the following: hosts [sm] host1 [sw] host2 myplaybook.yml ---
**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:** [June 8, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/2 "2015-06-08T21:05:54Z")
We already have something, not play, but task based --start-at-task, also it uses the name not a number. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Truong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Steven\_Truong](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steven_Truong)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/3 "2015-06-08T21:11:15Z")
The problem here is that role1 is the first role for play #2 and play #3 but I want to start with play #3 and I do not want to edit or comment my playbook. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/4 "2015-06-08T21:14:17Z")
--list-tasks should show the tasks and their names, --start-at-task will then let you start at any task (does not matter if it was defined in a role a play or an include). ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Truong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Steven\_Truong](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steven_Truong)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/5 "2015-06-08T21:43:25Z")
Hi Brian, Please excuse me if I am wrong but the problem with using the same ordering and role name in plays is that unless you can provide a scope such as play#.task\_name then how do you apply a play preceded by another play with the same starting role. And there are times I have to apply the same role to different hosts according to some orders of execution and then I need to go back and fix things starting a play. –list-tasks play #2 (host1): setup abc … play #3 (host3): setup abc … If I used --start-at-task “setup abc” then how would I be able to achieve my goal as to start at play #3 and not play #2. Certainly Ansible can still apply all tasks in play #2 and that could be ok in some cases but when I want to save times or just to apply changes to hosts in starting at a specific play and avoid commenting out all previous plays up to the play I want to start with then would your suggestion work? Thanks, Steven. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/6 "2015-06-08T22:34:40Z")
no, in that case there is nothing that will work w/o editing the playbook and introducing a 'checkpoint task' like debug: with a name you can use as reference. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/7 "2015-06-08T22:35:28Z")
actually at that point i would recommend just writing 1 off plays that do exactly what you want. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Truong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Steven\_Truong](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steven_Truong)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/8 "2015-06-08T22:49:42Z")
Hi Brian, This has become a pain point (at least for me) when I have to deal with setup a full kerberized CDH 5.4 + hive + sentry setup. I certainly can break the playbook into playbooks but that might mean I would introduce even more playbooks in my environment and … I just need to find a way to achieve this intelligently and without modifying my playbooks with comments and then I might forget to uncomment the plays or tasks. Thanks for the conversation. Steven. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/possible-feature-requrest-start-execution-at-play-number-in-a-playbook/18438/9 "2015-06-08T22:51:49Z")
i would propose smaller playbooks that do each group of tasks and a larger 'container' playbooks that run full stacks using includes: of the smaller ones.