Ansible issue with yum module and listing of modules

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Hello,

I am running CentOS 7 and attempting to install multiple packages via yum module via a list. My playbook looks like so:

• hosts: lab
  remote_user: ansible
  tasks:
  • name: Install list of packages
    yum:
    name:
    - tree
    - pstree
    state: present

And this is the output I get:

The problem is that I don't have the repo for pstree configured so it's failing on that, but I do have the repo configured for tree yet the entire playbook fails. In other words, ansible fails to continue past pstree and continue on with packages that will for sure work. It's as if Ansible retroactively removes output from successful packages if it discovers that one package that comes after has error.

Why can't yum module just ignore packages that won't work and continue on? If i had many more packages this would be even worse.

I looked at yum module documentation and I don't see anything that will help. I found ignore_errors and I set it to yes but that did not help. Any ideas why this is happening and how this can be fixed? Barring me making a mistake, this seems like a limitation of Ansible.

It is not a bug! It is a feature! Yes - you have most certainly discovered how Ansible deals with its Playbooks. If one task fails - the entire Playbook fails and this is NOT configurable.

The ignore_errors that you tried is not for your type of failure. It is to get a task to ignore passive text (error text) by a process that is not truly a failure in your scenario. As you might guess, it is pretty rare that this comes up as useful for us.

The key is to design your Playbook so that it does not fail. I know I sound like I am being cheeky here, but I am not. So in your case - you will get the required repos (if needed) and then perform the next task.

Remember, Ansible Playbooks are idempotent - fancy language for the fact that if you have a Playlist that does a repo pull task - it will quitely not run and not mess things up when not needed. Playbooks can be run and run and run without fear of issues, unlike regular old scripts.