Ansible Debug: Print Variable & List All Variables – Playbook

During Ansible playbook debugging it is useful to know how to display host facts or registered variables.

To print a message from Ansible playbook, as well as a value of a variable, we can use Ansible debug module.

In the examples below i am showing how to print particular Ansible variables and how to list all known facts and variables from Ansible playbook.

Cool Tip: Enable DEBUG mode and increase VERBOSITY in Ansible! Read more →

Debug Ansible Playbook by Printing Variables

Print a variable:

- name: "Ansible | Print a variable"
  debug:
    msg: "The operating system is {{ ansible_distribution }}"

Display a variable only if it is defined:

- name: "Ansible | Print a variable if defined"
  debug:
    msg: "The 'foo' variable value is {{ foo }}"
  when: foo is defined

- name: "Ansible | Print a message if a variable is undefined"
  debug:
    msg: "The 'bar' variable is undefined"
  when: bar is not defined

Print multiple variable:

- name: "Ansible | Print multiple variable"
  debug:
    msg: |
      The role is {{ host_role }}
      The environment is {{ host_environment }}

List all known variables and facts:

- name: "Ansible | List all known variables and facts"
  debug:
    var: hostvars[inventory_hostname]