lookups.yml

---
- name: Play to make use of lookups
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    choices:
      - Take the blue pill
      - Take the red pill
      - Do nothing
  tasks:
    - name: Print out contents of file read in
      debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('file', 'files/somefile.txt') }}"

    - name: Print put the contents of two files read in using a loop
      debug:
        msg: "{{ item }}"
      with_file:
        - somefile.txt
        - someotherfile.txt

    - name: Print out the contents of whichever file is found first
      debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('file', lookup('first_found', 'files/somefile.txt', 'files/someotherfile.txt', '/etc/hosts')) }}"

    - name: Execute a command and use the output in a task using the lines lookup
      debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('lines', 'cat /etc/hosts', 'cat /etc/motd') }}"

    - name: Read in a processed Jinja2 template
      debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('template', 'j2/sample.j2') }}"

    - name: Choose a random item from a list
      debug:
        msg: "{{ item }}"
      with_random_choice: "{{ choices }}"

    - name: Grab content from a URL
      debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('url', 'https://w3.org/TR/PNG/iso_8859-1.txt') }}"