Quit a playbook without error for a particular host

Archives Ansible Project
1

Hi,

I have a playbook containing several Plays and each Play is executed on a bunch of hosts.

I would like to quit the whole playbook (not only the current play) for a particular host if a “when: condition” is met.

Example Playbook with 2 Plays:

  • name: Play for patching precheck and download updates
    hosts: patchgroup
    remote_user: ansible
    gather_facts: true
    become: true
    timeout: 300
    roles:

  • patching_precheck_download

  • name: Play for setting Icinga downtime
    hosts: patchgroup
    remote_user: ansible
    gather_facts: true
    roles:

  • role: icinga_downtime
    vars:
    host_and_services: true

In the role patching_precheck_download there is the following task

  • block:
  • name: Red Hat | Quit playbook when no updates are found
    fail:
    msg: “Quit playbook for the current host since no updates are found.”
    #- meta: end_host

when: updates.stdout_lines | length == 0

If the when condition is met, I currently use “fail” which will end for the particular host, both the current play and the playbook. This is intended, but it will throw an error which should not be the case.

The other alternative I found is “meta: end_host” this will not throw an error and end the play for the current host, but not for the whole Playbook (2nd Play will still be executed for this particular host). So, this is no solution.

Any ideas how to quit a Play and Playbook without throwing an error ?

Many thanks
Rainer

2

Perhaps one solution is to set some fact (with set_fact) when this condition is met, like finished: yes and for subsequent plays/tasks you can add a line when: finished is not defined. Facts are set on a per-host basis, so I think this should work.

This isn’t really quitting, but it achieves the same result by skipping those tasks.