.. _playbooks_lookups: ******* Lookups ******* Lookup plugins retrieve data from outside sources such as files, databases, key/value stores, APIs, and other services. Like all templating, lookups execute and are evaluated on the Ansible control machine. Ansible makes the data returned by a lookup plugin available using the standard templating system. Before Ansible 2.5, lookups were mostly used indirectly in ``with_<lookup>`` constructs for looping. Starting with Ansible 2.5, lookups are used more explicitly as part of Jinja2 expressions fed into the ``loop`` keyword. .. _lookups_and_variables: Using lookups in variables ========================== You can populate variables using lookups. Ansible evaluates the value each time it is executed in a task (or template):: vars: motd_value: "{{ lookup('file', '/etc/motd') }}" tasks: - debug: msg: "motd value is {{ motd_value }}" For more details and a list of lookup plugins in ansible-core, see :ref:`plugins_lookup`. You may also find lookup plugins in collections. You can review a list of lookup plugins installed on your control machine with the command ``ansible-doc -l -t lookup``. .. seealso:: :ref:`working_with_playbooks` An introduction to playbooks :ref:`playbooks_conditionals` Conditional statements in playbooks :ref:`playbooks_variables` All about variables :ref:`playbooks_loops` Looping in playbooks `User Mailing List <https://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_ Have a question? Stop by the google group! `irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_ #ansible IRC chat channel