Disable handlers from running

Question

Is there any way to stop handlers from running ? I was trying to add tag and use "--skip-tags" to it but it does not work.

I could add next role variable reload_service: true and use it but I've already started using tags and they work great to just re-run part of role.

Handlers are usually used to restart services and I want to run this role without starting service without changing role variables just to cover next case.

I'm using ansible 2.1.2.0

Test case:

mkdir -p test/role/handlers test/role/tasks cd test echo -ne '---\n - command: "echo Test"\n notify: restart\n' > role/tasks/main.yml echo -ne '---\n- name: restart\n command: "echo Handler"\n tags: [handlers]\n' > role/handlers/main.yml echo -ne '---\n- hosts: localhost\n gather_facts: false\n roles:\n - role\n' > play.yml ansible-playbook play.yml --skip-tags handlers

Answer 1

Here's an example of how you could use a variable to skip a handler:

$ cat test.yaml
---
- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
  - copy:
      content: "{{ ansible_date_time.epoch }}" # This will always trigger the handler.
      dest: /tmp/debug
    notify:
      - debug

  handlers:
  - name: debug
    debug:
      msg: Hello from the debug handler!
    when:
    - skip_handlers | default("false") == "false"

Normal use would look like this:

$ ansible-playbook test.yaml

And to skip the handlers:

$ ansible-playbook test.yaml -e skip_handlers=true