How to Check Ansible Syntax Errors: Methods Explained

In this article, we shall discuss the different ways to check for Ansible syntax errors. There are multiple ways to check for Ansible syntax errors before running a playbook. Syntax checks ensure your playbooks are error-free, reducing the chances of failure during execution. I have put together some offline and online methods to check your Ansible syntax for errors. Please see how to Using Awx to deploy, schedule and run playbooks, and “How to configure a remote Windows Server to Support Ansible“.

Also, see how to Install and configure Ansible on Azure Virtual Machine, How to Edit Windows Hosts File via PowerToy Editor Utility, and Enable Autologon and Autostart for user session.

Different ways to check for Ansible syntax errors

1: Check Mode (Dry Run)

When ansible-playbook is executed with –check it will not make any changes on remote systems. Instead, any module instrumented to support ‘check mode’ (which contains most of the primary core modules.

But it is not required that all modules do this) will report what changes they would have made rather than making them.

Other modules that do not support check mode will also take no action but just will not report what changes they might have made.

Also, see “Automate Infrastructure Deployments in the Cloud with Ansible and Azure Pipelines“, and ‘Concept of Ansible on Windows using Cygwin“.

Note: Check mode is just a simulation, and if you have steps that use conditionals that depend on the results of prior commands, it may be less useful for you.

However, it is great for one-node-at-time basic configuration management use cases.

ansible-playbook dc.yml --check

Terminal output displaying a syntax error in a YAML file while running an Ansible command, indicating the specific line and column where the error is located.

2: YAML Lint

Below is a simple playbook as pasted below. Navigate to the Yaml Link Link. Click on Go in order to validate the syntax for errors

A screenshot of a YAML Lint tool interface, showing a sample YAML code for tasks under 'hosts: win' with a green button labeled 'Go' and a message indicating 'Valid YAML!'

Below is another YML validators.

3: YAML Linter (yamllint)

Since Ansible playbooks are written in YAML, using a YAML linter such as yamllint can help check for any errors or issues with the YAML structure, such as indentation or formatting.

yamllint playbook.yml

Note: YAML format is strict, and errors such as improper indentation can break playbook execution. yamllint helps catch YAML-specific issues that might not be detected by the ansible-playbook command.

4: Using ansible-lint

ansible-lint is a tool specifically designed for linting Ansible playbooks, roles, and tasks. It helps identify syntax errors, best practice violations, and coding style issues.

ansible-lint playbook.yml

Lastly, some text editors and IDEs such as Visual Studio Code, Atom, or PyCharm, offer Ansible-specific extensions or plugins that highlight syntax errors in real-time as you write your playbooks.

I hope you found this article on ‘Different ways to check for Ansible syntax errors” very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.