# Specified inventory, host pattern and/or --limit leaves us with no hosts to target **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** aap, inventory\ **Created:** [April 7, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577 "2025-04-07T17:36:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/1 "2025-04-07T17:36:14Z")
Hello - I’m seeing the noted error in some, but not all, cases > ERROR! Specified inventory, host pattern and/or --limit leaves us with no hosts to target. Its consistent on which of my workflow jobs it occurs, all the playbooks (both ones that succeed and ones that fail) use the same patterns. All playbooks have this ```auto --- - hosts: "{{ buildgroup }}" gather_facts: false ``` and `buildgroup` is an extra\_var that is passed in (via AAP or with `--extra-vars`) The workflow exists largely to split targets up into various groupings (DataCenters, Domains, Environments, OSes) and leverage different credentials. All of those playbooks are invoked with limits like `:&DC1:&Ubunut:&Internal`. The oddity is that a few of the playbooks will consistently fail with the noted error, while others (using the same targeting) will consistently pass with an output like > skipping: no hosts matched The only deviation I can find is that _one_ of the playbooks that consistently skips (instead of fails) has its `limit` option set as `&DC1` (without the leading `:`). This playbook behaves as expected consistently, but so do several others that do have the leading `:`. Does anyone have any advice on how I can start digging into this oddity? Even running with verbosity turned all the way to 5, I am not getting any useful messages to help me isolate (and then correct) the differences here. Thanks in advance ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/2 "2025-04-07T22:33:54Z")
This error occurs if inventory parsed contains more than 0 hosts, and if the limit provided doesn’t match a host (for example, if it only matches an empty group). I would start by debugging the inventory, and making sure all limits should result in matching at least 1 host. The `hosts` keyword also accepts a pattern, so if you want to ignore a pattern might match no hosts and just see `skipping: no hosts matched`, that could be another option. ---
**Author:** ![hugonz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/hugonz/32/503_2.png) [@hugonz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/hugonz)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 12:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/3 "2025-04-08T00:06:52Z")
This is suspicious: `:&DC1:&Ubunut:&Internal` Shouldn’t it be: `DC1:&Ubuntu:&Internal`? So that there is a first group after which the refinement is done? ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 11:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/4 "2025-04-08T11:39:34Z")
> [@shertel](#): > > This error occurs if inventory parsed contains more than 0 hosts, and if the limit provided doesn’t match a host (for example, if it only matches an empty group). I know what the error is saying. I don’t know why it happens on some-but-not-all of my plays > [@shertel](#): > > I would start by debugging the inventory, and making sure all limits should result in matching at least 1 host. With this workflow, there is a very good chance that some plays _won’t_ have any hosts that match. That’s kind of the point. What I am trying to sort out is how to differentiate “there is nothing to do” and “there was something to do, and it failed” Again, most of my plays do this as expect but some do not. I’m trying to tease out the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/5 "2025-04-08T11:42:16Z")
The _intention_ is for the `{{ buildgroup }}` to be the starting group, and then be refined from there. What I am trying to do (and mostly succeeding, but with the noted errors) is say "all the hosts in `{{ buildgroup }}` and are in the DC1, Ubuntu, and Internal groups. And the filtering _is_ working as expected (hosts have the correct jobs run, and don’t run when they should not). What I’m not getting are useful statuses at the end. The workflow shows failed in cases where “there were not hosts to operate on” for some plays. ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/6 "2025-04-08T12:53:17Z")
You haven’t shared anything about your inventory, so I can’t guess from no context. But that’s where I’d start digging to debug this issue. > With this workflow, there is a very good chance that some plays _won’t_ have any hosts that match. That’s kind of the point. That is considered a broken limit. I remembered that this issue has tripped up others in the past, specifically for empty groups [Applying limit switch with an empty inventory group causes error not warning? · Issue #77510 · ansible/ansible · GitHub](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/77510) which is why I point it out. I opened a PR to turn it into a warning [Warn instead of error if --limit matches groups but no hosts by s-hertel · Pull Request #77512 · ansible/ansible · GitHub](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/77512), but it was declined. ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/7 "2025-04-08T14:16:12Z")
Here’s a sanitized version of my regression testing inventory. Yes, I know that groups starting with numbers currently cause warnings. ```auto # Domain groups [00Int:children] Test_Windows Test_Linux Test_SQL [00Ext:children] Test_DMZ_Win Test_DMZ_Lin DELEGATE_MPDMZ # Data Center Groups [02DC1:children] Test_Windows Test_Linux Test_DMZ_Win Test_DMZ_Lin [02DC2:children] # OS Groups [03Windows:children] Test_Windows Test_DMZ_Win [03Ubuntu:children] Test_Linux Test_DMZ_Lin #Host Groups here [Test_Windows] testbuild01 [Test_Linux] testbuild02 [Test_DMZ_Win] testbuild04 [Test_DMZ_Lin] testbuild05 ``` And here a mock up of my workflow. ```mermaid graph LR A(Start) --> B{Which Domain} B --> C(Int
Pre-Work
limit &00Int) B --> D(Ext
Pre-Work
limit &00Ext) C --> E{Which DC} D --> E E --> G(DC1
Build VM
limit :&02DC1) E --> H(DC2
Build VM
limit :&02DC2) G --> K(Customize VM
Windows
Ext
DC1
limit :&03Windows:&00Ext:&02DC1) G --> L(Customize VM
Windows
Int
DC1
limit :&03Windows:&00Int:&02DC1) G --> M(Customize VM
Linux
Ext
DC1
limit :&03Ubuntu:&00Ext:&02DC1) G --> N(Customize VM
Linux
Int
DC1
limit :&03Ubuntu:&00Int:&02DC1) H --> O(Customize VM
Windows
Ext
DC2
limit :&03Windows:&00Ext:&02DC2) H --> P(Customize VM
Windows
Int
DC2
limit :&03Windows:&00Int:&02DC2) H --> Q(Customize VM
Linux
Ext
DC2
limit :&03Ubuntu:&00Ext:&02DC2) H --> R(Customize VM
Linux
Int
DC2
limit :&03Ubuntu:&00Int:&02DC2) ``` The confusing part is that the place that regularly fails is the “Build” step when there are no targets in the datacenter (again, this is a normal circumstance). At first, I looked at the difference between the “Pre” and “Build” steps (both only filter once, and one started with at `:` and one did not). Unfortunately, when I changed the filter on to match the “Pre” filters, it still didn’t work. Both playbooks start with the same opening block I referenced above, and their first task is an `include:` (yes, I know, deprecated. Also on the list) ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/8 "2025-04-08T16:06:55Z")
The empty group 02DC2 would cause that error for every limit containing ‘&02DC2’ since it will never match any hosts. ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/9 "2025-04-08T17:00:36Z")
So the issue is that the group itself is empty, not that the result of the filter is empty? ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/10 "2025-04-08T17:25:25Z")
The `&` character specifies to use an intersection, so if you use `:&02DC2` and `02DC2` contains no hosts, the limit produces no hosts, because it cannot create an intersection between the prior hosts that filter. ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/11 "2025-04-08T18:07:31Z")
Yeah. There are times I _want_ no hosts (ex: if an application has nothing in DC2, the whole DC2 branch of this workflow should run successfully, doing nothing). This is already successfully skipping tasks everywhere else in the workflow, but not on the “build” step. I am testing out the suggestion from @shertel to see if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/12 "2025-04-09T15:20:47Z")
OK, after some testing, having an empty group in my inventory did seem to be the issue. In hopes that this distinction will help someone in the future, the issue seems to be that with an empty group in the inventory, the set of filters will _always_ result in an empty list, and NOT that the combination of filters _sometimes_ results in an empty list. I realize that [documentation on patterns](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/inventory_guide/intro_patterns.html#common-patterns) says its an intersection of groups. But It was the error I was getting did not make me realize that what it was say is “given the state of this inventory, this intersection cannot be anything other than empty”. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/specified-inventory-host-pattern-and-or-limit-leaves-us-with-no-hosts-to-target/41577/13 "2025-05-09T15:21:03Z")
Closed on May 9, 2025, 3:21pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.