# require passing a tag ?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/require-passing-a-tag/11846>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [August 31, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/require-passing-a-tag/11846 "2012-08-31T08:44:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ansibleguest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ansibleguest](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ansibleguest)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/require-passing-a-tag/11846/1 "2012-08-31T08:44:20Z")

</div>

I am using my playbooks right now like in this example:  
ansible-playbook -i hosts product.yml --tags  
"dependencies,createuser,install,createdb,configudpate,importdata"

With the tags i do the steering which parts of the playbook should be  
done or skipped.  
Certain things you want to do once only and tags seems a good way for  
me and also keeping the code together.

Nevertheless i would like to limit the run of a playbook without  
passing a tag. I.e. it would run through the install again etc.  
For security reasons it should be prohibited for someone to running  
the playbook without passing a tag.  
Some statement like 'require tag: True' or similar at the playbook  
header may be ?

Of course it does not limit which tags you are allowed to pass and i  
can wrap a shellscript arround to solve it...

And as we are at the tags right now, it is good we have that  
Errormessage which gives a clue when a tag is not available:  
ERROR: tag(s) not found in playbook: remove. possible values:  
configupdate,createdb,createuser,dependencies,install,importdata,update

What would be nice to have is a Usage Section in the playbooks. So you  
can give a user some custom helptext what each tag means or what  
commands are available and recommended.

Usage:

--tags "dependencies" install dependency packages  
--tags "install" install software, starts service  
...

Of course i can solve this by shell script arround too...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 11:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/require-passing-a-tag/11846/2 "2012-08-31T11:48:39Z")

</div>

> Of course it does not limit which tags you are allowed to pass and i  
> can wrap a shellscript arround to solve it...

I think the shell script is a good answer.

> Usage:
> 
> --tags "dependencies" install dependency packages  
> --tags "install" install software, starts service  
> ...

I'd include some comments at the top of the playbook so all you have  
to do is "head playbook.yml"