Error apt is not a valid attribute for a play

How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the “not a valid attribute for a Play” error.

Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting and specifically about the “not a valid attribute for a Play” error.
I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

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demo

The best way of talking about Ansible troubleshooting is to jump in a live demo to show you practically the not a valid attribute for a Play error and how to solve it!

error code

• invalid_play_attribute_error.yml

---
- name: file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    myfile: "~/example.txt"
  task:
    - name: Creating an empty
      ansible.builtin.file:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
        state: touch

error execution

• output

$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml
ERROR! 'task' is not a valid attribute for a Play
The error appears to be in 'ansible-pilot/troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_error.yml': line 2, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
 - -
- name: file module demo
 ^ here

fix code

• invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml

---
- name: file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    myfile: "~/example.txt"
  tasks:
    - name: Creating an empty
      ansible.builtin.file:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
        state: touch

fix execution

• output

$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory troubleshooting/invalid_play_attribute_fix.yml
PLAY [file module demo] *********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [Creating an empty file] ***************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know better how to troubleshoot the not a valid attribute for a Play error Error.
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