When are file lookups performed? How to store lookup result in a variable?

[Dmitriy Panteleyev]

I was under the impression that if I define a variable with a `lookup` function, it would store the results of the lookup.  And then when I used that variable, it would spit out the results of the lookup.

However, from running a bunch of different test cases that Ansible performs the lookup every time I try to use that variable.  Is that by design?  Is there a way to avoid repeated lookups?

So... expectation:

myvar: lookup(...)

>>> look up stuff and store result of lookup in 'myvar'

- name: '{{ myvar }}'

>>> spit out contents of 'myvar'

- debug:
    var: myvar

>>> spit out contents of 'myvar'

etc.

What seems to be happening is...

myvar: lookup(...)

>>> look up stuff

- name: '{{ myvar }}'

>>> look at 'myvar' and perform the lookup defined by it, then spit out result

- debug:
 var: myvar

>>> look at 'myvar' and perform the lookup defined by it, then spit out result

etc.

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On Thursday, 18 October 2018 19.54.12 CEST Dmitriy Panteleyev wrote:
> I was under the impression that if I define a variable with a `lookup`
> function, it would store the results of the lookup. And then when I used
> that variable, it would spit out the results of the lookup.
>
> However, from running a bunch of different test cases that Ansible performs
> the lookup every time I try to use that variable. Is that by design? Is
> there a way to avoid repeated lookups?

Yes, by design, but you can avoid it by using set_fact.

- set_fact:
myvar: '{{ lookup(...) }}'

--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Dmitriy Panteleyev]

Thank you for clearing it up!