Strange behaviour in Ansible 2.19: String converted to an int

ildjarn
Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:15:51 +0000
Get Help

I have the following template:

---
- name: Test MAC address validity
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: False

  tasks:
    - name: Debug info
      debug:
        var: macadres

I created a job in AWX that calls this playbook, and have turned on ‘Prompt on launch’ for variables.

Case 1:
I edit the AWX job template and add macadres: '11:33:22:55:44:11' in the variables, run the playbook, click next on the ‘Variables’ prompt, and launch.
Result:

ok: [localhost] => {
    "macadres": "11:33:22:55:44:11"
}

Case 2:
I edit the AWX job template and clean the Variables section. I run the template, fill in macadres: '11:33:22:55:44:11 in the Variables prompt, click next, and launch.
Result:

ok: [localhost] => {
    "macadres": 8986232651
}

So when running as regular variable, everything works fine, when running as extra variable the string is converted to an int.

Ansible: 2.19.7
AWX: 24.6.1

I also did the same tests with Ansible 2.18.14 and here everything works fine.

I’m not sure if this is a bug, or expected behaviour. If it’s a bug I’ll submit an issue on Github.

14 posts - 6 participants

Read full topic