Easiest way to exit Ansible playbook while debugging

Solution 1:

Using - pause: might suit.

Pauses playbook execution for a set amount of time, or until a prompt is acknowledged. All parameters are optional. The default behavior is to pause with a prompt. You can use ctrl+c if you wish to advance a pause earlier than it is set to expire or if you need to abort a playbook run entirely. To continue early: press ctrl+c and then c. To abort a playbook: press ctrl+c and then a.

http://docs.ansible.com/pause_module.html

Or just a straight - fail: if you will certainly not want to continue.

If you want a block of tasks to execute, you can use tags and --with-tags:. Ansible v2 will have proper code blocks so you can use a single when: for multiple tasks.

Solution 2:

- meta: end_play

end_play (added in 2.2) causes the play to end without failing the host.

Solution 3:

ansible-playbook --step will let you confirm each task you want to run and stop execution whenever you want.