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Ansible Debug Messages

In this lesson, you'll learn about Ansible's Debug Module, a powerful tool for displaying debug messages and gathering information while executing playbooks.

By the end of this lesson, you will understand how to use the debug module in Ansible, view its help documentation, and implement it in your playbooks to display custom messages and gather variable information.

Understanding Debug Messages in Ansible

Debug messages in Ansible are a way to output custom messages or variable values during the execution of a playbook. They are instrumental in troubleshooting and verifying the data being passed through your playbooks. The Debug Module is the primary means of accomplishing this in Ansible.

For example, here is a task that displays a custom message:

JSON
TASK [Display a Custom Debug Message] ***************************************************************************** ok: [managed-node-1] => { "msg": "This is a test debug message." } ok: [managed-node-2] => { "msg": "This is a test debug message." } ok: [ansible-controller] => { "msg": "This is a test debug message." }

Viewing Help for the Debug Module

Before we dive into writing our playbook, it's beneficial to know how to access the help documentation for the debug module. This can be done using the ansible-doc command, which provides detailed information about modules, including usage, parameters, and examples. To view the help for the debug module, execute the following command:

ansible-doc debug

This command will display comprehensive information about the debug module, which will help you understand its capabilities and how to use it effectively.

Creating a New Playbook

Let's create a new playbook named debug_messages_test.yml. This playbook will include tasks that utilize the debug module. Start by creating the file using your favorite text editor, for instance:

nano…