# Variable interpolation in task name **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [May 7, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192 "2014-05-07T20:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/1 "2014-05-07T20:28:22Z")
Hi, I have a role that updates DNS records. It contains a number of tasks such as: - name: Create A record route53: command=create [zone=example.com](http://zone=example.com) record={{ domain }} type=A value={{ ip }} Other roles (that represent server profiles) depend on this role like this: - role: dns domain: “{{ website\_domain }}” ip: “{{ ansible\_default\_ipv4.address }}” The problem is that the role execution does not give a lot of information because the name of the task is the same every time. Of course I could use a debug task, but I thought I would put the domain in the task name, like this: - name: Create A record for domain {{ domain }} Unfortunately, the variable interpolation does not work well, it seems to go only one “level” deep. This is the output: TASK: [dns | Create A record for {{website\_domain}}] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [[web1.example.com](http://web1.example.com)] My question: is this expected behavior? Otherwise I will try and isolate the problem and create an issue. Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Slava\_Semushin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@Slava\_Semushin](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Slava_Semushin)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/2 "2014-05-08T06:21:52Z")
Hi, [...] > - name: Create A record for domain {{ domain }} > > Unfortunately, the variable interpolation does not work well, it seems to go > only one "level" deep. This is the output: > > TASK: [dns | Create A record for {{website\_domain}}] > \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* > ok: [web1.example.com] Have you tried with - name: Create A record {{domain}}   route53: command=create zone=example.com record={{ domain }} type=A value={{ ip }} ? Because based on output above you used website\_domain variable which isn't available inside role. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/3 "2014-05-08T21:43:26Z")
I guess I was not clear. The variable website\_domain does exist, I was including only what I thought was the interesting bits. Ansible would have complained, by the way, if the variable had not existed. The attached archive contains an isolated example. Run with "ansible-playbook test.yml -i hosts". Notice how the debug tasks print the contents of the variables foo and bar, while the task names both contain "{{ foo }}". Regards, Joost > **(attachments)** > > [ansible-namevar.zip](https://forum.ansible.com/uploads/short-url/oPam38HOZO5gOMlAqAsJqWv807q.zip) (1.47 KB) ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/4 "2014-05-09T16:00:23Z")
You mean output like this during a play: ....... TASK: [base-mongodb | install mongodb RPMs v {{mongo\_version}}] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [mongo1] =\> (item=mongodb-org-2.6.0,mongodb-org-server-2.6.0,mongodb-org-shell-2.6.0) ....... ? Personally I quite like the behaviour, I see it as useful to know what var is controlling that part of a playbook run - though I know colleagues who took the opposite view. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/5 "2014-05-09T18:04:29Z")
you can interpolate variables, just not from every scope, only ones that maintain value across hosts (extra, vars, vars\_files, vars\_prompts, etc) but not inventory vars.​ ---
**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:** [May 9, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/6 "2014-05-09T19:11:04Z")
What Brian said. This is not a bug. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/7 "2014-05-09T19:12:00Z")
To explaloate (this has been answered several times before), imagine you are managing 500 hosts and an the inventory variable is different on each one? There’s no way to show a good task header in that case. The best course of action is to name each task and don’t have variables in the task name, so it prints out a nice description. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/8 "2014-05-10T20:04:16Z")
> To explaloate (this has been answered several times before), imagine you are > managing 500 hosts and an the inventory variable is different on each one? > There's no way to show a good task header in that case. Of course, that's it. There is no single value. > The best course of action is to name each task and don't have variables in > the task name, so it prints out a nice description. Well, that was my original problem. I have a generic role that creates DNS entries, that is depended upon by various other roles, in order to, well, create DNS entries. So there is not really a nice description to print out. It has tasks like: - name: Create A record for {{ domain }}   route53: command=create zone={{ dns\_zone }}            record={{ domain }} type=A ttl={{ ttl }} value={{ ansible\_default\_ipv4.address }} I was trying to get Ansible to print out the domains that are created without using the debug task, but I guess I will use debug after all. By the way, I did search the list for variation on "name variable interpolation" but did not find anything. Thanks for explaining yet again! Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Strahinja\_Kustudic2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Strahinja\_Kustudic2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Strahinja_Kustudic2)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 10:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/9 "2014-05-11T10:26:11Z")
But, this should be possible to implement into Ansible? I would also like to use any variable which works in a task, to work in the task name. If you don’t have anything against this, I would like to create an issue on github, maybe someone takes it and implements it. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/10 "2014-05-11T13:04:14Z")
The problem with “any variable” is that hosts share the task name, that is the main reason inventory variables don’t work Brian Coca ---
**Author:** ![Strahinja\_Kustudic2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Strahinja\_Kustudic2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Strahinja_Kustudic2)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-interpolation-in-task-name/15192/11 "2014-05-11T16:38:39Z")
I see what you are saying. Since the tasks run in parallel for multiple servers and if servers have different values for the same variable in the inventory, or host\_vars, Ansible wouldn’t know how to name that task. Makes sense.