# with\_lines vs with\_pipe **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 2, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284 "2013-02-02T18:14:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yves\_Dorfsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yves\_Dorfsman](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Yves_Dorfsman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/1 "2013-02-02T18:14:41Z")
Can somebody go into details about the difference between these two? Is there really a difference between them? ---
**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:** [February 2, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/2 "2013-02-02T18:21:25Z")
Sure. with\_lines runs against a text file and gives you each line in the text file with\_pipe runs against a shell command, and gives you the lines in the shell command given "with\_fileglob" or "with\_lines" is what you want MOST of the time, with\_pipe is going to be used a bit less. Also in many cases, if you are reading something that is a list of packages to install (for example), usage of vars\_files to assign a list and using "with\_items" is also probably more appropriate. It is, however, useful for walking through lists produced by things that are not already in YAML. ---
**Author:** ![Yves\_Dorfsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yves\_Dorfsman](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Yves_Dorfsman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/3 "2013-02-02T18:29:38Z")
If with\_lines runs against a file, why can't we just give it a list of files, and have to use the syntax "\*cat\* /path/to/filename"??? ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Daniel\_Hokka\_Zakriss](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Daniel_Hokka_Zakriss)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/4 "2013-02-02T18:36:37Z")
Yves Dorfsman wrote: > Can somebody go into details about the difference between these two? > > Is there really a difference between them? Yes. with\_lines creates a list of each line in the output. with\_pipe is primarily meant to be used as $PIPE(...), but can also be used to use the full contents of several commands. So, - action: debug msg="$item"   with\_lines: echo -e a\nb\nc yields three tasks, a, b, and c. Whereas - action: debug msg="$item"   with\_pipe:   - echo a   - echo b   - echo c will do the same, but the items here can include newlines. Daniel ---
**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:** [February 2, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/5 "2013-02-02T18:40:26Z")
Sorry, with\_lines also operates against a pipe. It should have really really been called "with\_lines\_in\_pipe" but that's set now. (If you want lines in a file, vars\_files is almost always a better fit anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Yves\_Dorfsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yves\_Dorfsman](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Yves_Dorfsman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/6 "2013-02-02T18:51:55Z")
> Sorry, with\_lines also operates against a pipe. It should have really > really been called "with\_lines\_in\_pipe" but that's set now. Yes. > (If you want lines in a file, vars\_files is almost always a better fit anyway) With the exception that, it is my understanding that, vars\_file expects a yaml file instead of a simple list of lines. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-lines-vs-with-pipe/12284/7 "2013-02-02T19:09:07Z")
> > > > With the exception that, it is my understanding that, vars\_file expects a > yaml file instead of a simple list of lines. This is true, though this also allows it to operate on structured data. So you could have a list of hashes, for instance, and be able to get at things like: ${item.subkey} The 'cat' approach works when you don't want that.