Are Ansible handlers defined in roles ran after the entire playbook or the role

ansible

I'm running Ansible 2.0, and I could just run this, but I could also be tricked in to believing something that isn't true by my empirical tests and I can find no documentation to tell me when handlers are supposed to be ran.

If handlers aren't ran at the end of their tasks, this is my conundrum. I've got a playbook with 5 roles in it, I want to add a 6 role to the end that needs to have the handlers of the 4th role completed before it can start.

Is there any way to run Ansible to rely on a handler being completed (i.e. a role being completely completed) before doing something else or am I using handlers wrong?

Best Answer

Handlers are executed:

  • at the end of a play (not playbook)
  • on executing the meta: flush_handlers task

So "to add a 6 role to the end that needs to have the handlers of the 4th role" you need:

  • either to split the role assignment into separate plays;

  • or add a meta task and include the 6th role with include_role module:

    roles:
  - role4
tasks:
  - meta: flush_handlers
  - include_role:
      name: role6

For your use case, I'd suggest the first method as the include_role module is still very fresh and there are quirks when using it (see this question on SO).

Moreover, please notice that handlers' names and listen calls are global, so two handlers in separate roles will be in conflict if they had the same name and both roles were assigned in a single play. (ref. Handlers: Running Operations On Change)

Handlers [ ] are referenced by a globally unique name, and are notified by notifiers. [ ] a handler, it will run only once, after all of the tasks complete in a particular play.

Handler names and listen topics live in a global namespace.

  • Empirical proof (run this shell script to confirm handlers are executed at the end of the play - there were contradicting comments and answers here):

    #!/bin/bash

mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role1
mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role1/handlers
mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role1/tasks
mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role2
mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role2/handlers
mkdir -p ./sf831880/roles/role2/tasks

cat >./sf831880/roles/role1/tasks/main.yml <<TASKS1_END
---
- name: Always true in role1
  command: echo role1
  notify: handler1
TASKS1_END

cat >./sf831880/roles/role2/tasks/main.yml <<TASKS2_END
---
- name: Always true in role2
  command: echo role2
  notify: handler2
TASKS2_END

cat >./sf831880/roles/role1/handlers/main.yml <<HANDLERS1_END
---
- name: handler1
  debug:
    msg: "This is a handler in role1"
HANDLERS1_END

cat >./sf831880/roles/role2/handlers/main.yml <<HANDLERS2_END
---
- name: handler2
  debug:
    msg: "This is a handler in role2"
HANDLERS2_END

cat >./sf831880/playbook.yml <<PLAYBOOK_END
---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  connection: local
  roles:
    - role1
    - role2
  tasks:
    - debug:
        msg: "This is a task in a play"
PLAYBOOK_END

ansible-playbook ./sf831880/playbook.yml

    Result:

    PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [role1 : Always true in role1] ********************************************
changed: [localhost]

TASK [role2 : Always true in role2] ********************************************
changed: [localhost]

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a task in a play"
}

RUNNING HANDLER [role1 : handler1] *********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a handler in role1"
}

RUNNING HANDLER [role2 : handler2] *********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a handler in role2"

  • Play modified to contain meta: flush_handlers:

    ---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  connection: local
  roles:
    - role1
    - role2
  tasks:
    - meta: flush_handlers
    - debug:
        msg: "This is a task in a play"

    The result:

    PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [role1 : Always true in role1] ********************************************
changed: [localhost]

TASK [role2 : Always true in role2] ********************************************
changed: [localhost]

RUNNING HANDLER [role1 : handler1] *********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a handler in role1"
}

RUNNING HANDLER [role2 : handler2] *********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a handler in role2"
}

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is a task in a play"
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