# SyntaxError with synchronize module **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [March 25, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853 "2014-03-25T14:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mehul\_Ved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mehul\_Ved](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mehul_Ved)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/1 "2014-03-25T14:11:49Z")
Hi,   I am using ansible 1.4.4. I get SyntaxError when running synchronize plugin. Here's the playbook entry   - name: create common folders     synchronize: src=s dest=/etc/ssh Here's the error that I get failed: [play] =\> {"failed": true, "item": "", "parsed": false} invalid output was: File "/home/mehul/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1395752291.48-66351699093462/synchronize", line 556     except OSError, e:                   ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax FATAL: all hosts have already failed -- aborting I get the same error when running synchronize module using ansible command line $ ansible -i hosts web -m synchronize -a "src=ssh dest=/tmp/ssh" play | FAILED \>\> {     "failed": true,     "msg": " File \"/home/mehul/.ansible/tmp/ansible-1395752376.63-279538261866126/synchronize\", line 556\n except OSError, e:\n ^\nSyntaxError: invalid syntax\n",     "parsed": false } Ansible is installed in virtualenv $ which python /home/mehul/apps/lsdeploy/venv/bin/python $ python --version Python 2.7.6 $ which ansible /home/mehul/apps/lsdeploy/venv/bin/ansible $ ansible --version ansible 1.4.4 ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/2 "2014-03-25T14:13:47Z")
Hmm, that’s unexpected. Since the latest stable release is 1.5.3, can you see if that happens there, and if so, file a github ticket at [github.com/ansible/ansible](http://github.com/ansible/ansible)? The synchronize module received a lot of improvements in the last few months so there is a decent chance you’ll be good to go. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ernest0x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@Ernest0x](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ernest0x)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/3 "2014-03-25T14:30:55Z")
The syntax error you get could be caused by a python 3 interpreter being used at the target machine instead of python 2. This is a common error when running ansible on target machines running Archlinux because the default python interpreter (at /usr/bin/python) on Arch is actually the python3 interpreter. In these cases you should set the "ansible\_python\_interpreter" variable for the affected hosts to the correct path ("/usr/bin/python2" for archlinux). ---
**Author:** ![Mehul\_Ved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mehul\_Ved](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mehul_Ved)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/4 "2014-03-25T14:42:29Z")
That did fix the problem. I was assuming that isn't required when you install using virtualenv. Everything else has been working fine so far, this was the first thing I ran into an issue with while using ansible from virtualenv. Should this be considered a bug? If so, I'll open a new ticket on github. ---
**Author:** ![Ernest0x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@Ernest0x](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ernest0x)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/5 "2014-03-25T15:11:21Z")
It is not a bug. It is just that some hosts need to be configured so that ansible uses the python2 interpreter when running on them. Also, running from inside a virtualenv has nothing to do with this. Running from outside (not in a virtualenv) would cause the same error. It is an error caused on remote host (controlled), not on local host (controller). ---
**Author:** ![tannerjc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/tannerjc/32/985_2.png) [@tannerjc](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tannerjc)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/6 "2014-03-25T15:12:00Z")
Does the remote host have ansible\_python\_interpreter set in your inventory? ---
**Author:** ![Mehul\_Ved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mehul\_Ved](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mehul_Ved)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/7 "2014-03-26T10:10:13Z")
Probably I'm failing to understand the internal working and should spend more time understanding ansible. I was assuming that when running inside virtualenv, it would use python installation inside virtualenv only but that doesn't seem to be the case with synchronize module. I should probably understand how it works internally to understand why this happens. ---
**Author:** ![Mehul\_Ved](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mehul\_Ved](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mehul_Ved)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/8 "2014-03-26T10:10:41Z")
No it didn't earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Ernest0x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@Ernest0x](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ernest0x)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/syntaxerror-with-synchronize-module/14853/9 "2014-03-26T15:41:12Z")
Ansible runs first on the local machine (controller), then opens an ssh connection to the remote machine (target), copies itself and needed modules to the remote machine and invokes itself on the remote machine. So, eventually you will have \_two\_ processes of ansible: one runs on local machine and the other runs on the remote machine. If you happen to have installed ansible on the local machine inside a virtual environment and you have enabled that virtualenv, then the process running on the local machine will be running in the context of that virtualenv. On the other hand, the process that is running on the remote machine will have been invoked with the python interpreter configured with ansible\_python\_interpreter (which defaults to '/usr/bin/python').