# Using local\_action and set\_fact to gather local machine facts **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 24, 2017, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065 "2017-07-24T10:09:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JS11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@JS11](https://forum.ansible.com/u/JS11)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/1 "2017-07-24T10:09:44Z")
Hello I am trying to gather facts (date and time) on the local machine (Ansible Host) using (local\_action) before the rest of the playbook continues: > > > > > - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy > > > local\_action: > > > set\_fact: > > > date\_time: ‘{{ ansible\_date\_time.date }}\_{{ ansible\_date\_time.time }}’ Basically, the remote host is in a different time zone, but I would like to use the date of the Ansible Host for creating directories etc. But I keep seeing the following error: > > ERROR! no action detected in task. This often indicates a misspelled module name, or incorrect module path. > > > > > > The error appears to have been in ‘/usr/playbooks/roles/websites-backup/tasks/main.yml’: line 3, column 3, but may > > > be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. > > > > > > The offending line appears to be: > > > > > > > > > - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy > > > ^ here > > > > > > > > > The error appears to have been in ‘/usr/playbooks/roles/websites-backup/tasks/main.yml’: line 3, column 3, but may > > > be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. > > > > > > The offending line appears to be: > > > > > > > > > - name: Gatherin and setting Facts for this deploy > > > ^ here Regards JS ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 11:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/2 "2017-07-24T11:31:11Z")
The correct syntax is    - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy      local\_action:        module: set\_fact        date\_time: '{{ ansible\_date\_time.date }}\_{{ ansible\_date\_time.time }}' But this will not do what you are trying to do. Since lookup is executed on the localhost you can use this task instead.    - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy      set\_fact:        date\_time: '{{ lookup('pipe', 'date') }}' With this task every host will have the variable date\_time set to the time of the Ansible control machine. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/3 "2017-07-24T14:22:14Z")
To clear up, using local\_action does not affect 'controller only' actions like set\_fact/group\_by/add\_hosts/etc. Also using local\_action will ONLY use the localhost 'connection vars', the rest of the vars will belong to the inventory\_hostname (this is true for all delegation). Aside from the solution above, another option, if you gathered facts from localhost:   - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy     set\_fact:       date\_time: '{{ hostvars['localhost']['ansible\_date\_time]['date'] + '\_' + hostvars['localhost']['ansible\_date\_time]['time'] }}' ---
**Author:** ![JS11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@JS11](https://forum.ansible.com/u/JS11)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/4 "2017-07-24T20:40:42Z")
Hi Kai, Brian Some fantastic suggestions there! @Kai your suggestion is greater however, the output is in the format: Mon 24 Jul 21:23:08 BST 2017 I was looking for it to be in the format: 2017-07-24\_02:26:08 - as I will be using that to create the directory names. @Brian I think your suggestions looks like it’s going to do exactly what I want, however when I ran it, I kept getting the following errors: “failed”: true, “msg”: “the field ‘args’ has an invalid value, which appears to include a variable that is undefined. The error was: ‘dict object’ has no attribute ‘ansible\_date\_time’\n\nThe error appears to have been in ‘/usr/playbooks/website-playbooks/roles/websites-backup/tasks/main.yml’: line 14, column 5, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n - name: Gathering and setting Facts for this deploy\n ^ here\n” } to retry, use: --limit @/usr/playbooks/website-playbooks/websites-backup.retry I tried a few modifications of it, but I didn’t have much luck… Regards Jinal ---
**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:** [July 24, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/5 "2017-07-24T20:48:07Z")
You seem to be missing facts for localhost, you need to gather them first. ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/6 "2017-07-24T21:14:24Z")
That's easy to fix. "{{ lookup('pipe', 'date +%F\_%T') }}" Check out "man date" to learn more about date's capabilities. ---
**Author:** ![JS11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@JS11](https://forum.ansible.com/u/JS11)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-local-action-and-set-fact-to-gather-local-machine-facts/25065/7 "2017-07-25T12:56:42Z")
> Hi Kai Ah perfect thanks! I should have know that one! Sorry, didn’t realise that it picked that up from the native OS! Cheers JS