Run handlers regardless of task failure?

Question

I have an Ansible role which has the following tasks:

---
 # optionally find the latest version of goss using the GitHub "API"
 - name: detect latest version
   shell: |
    curl -sIS https://github.com/aelsabbahy/goss/releases/latest | \
      tr -d '\r' | \
      grep -oP '(?<=Location:\s).*' | \
      grep -oP '(?<=v)\d+\.\d+\.\d+'
   register: detected_latest
   when: version == "latest"

 - name: set detected version
   set_fact:
     real_version: "{{ detected_latest.stdout.strip() }}"
   when: version == "latest"

 - name: set specified verison
   set_fact:
     real_version: "{{ version }}"
   when: version != "latest"

 # set play facts
 - name: set facts
   set_fact:
     download_url: "https://github.com/aelsabbahy/goss/releases/download/v{{ real_version }}/goss-linux-amd64"

 # create goss directories
 - name: create goss directories
   file: path={{ item }} state=directory
   with_items:
     - /tmp/degoss
     - /tmp/degoss/bin
     - /tmp/degoss/tests
   notify: clean

 # download goss
 - name: install
   get_url:
     url: "{{ download_url }}"
     dest: /tmp/degoss/bin/goss
     mode: 0755

 # deploy test cases
 - name: deploy tests
   copy: src={{ item }} dest=/tmp/degoss/tests/
   with_items: "{{ tests }}"

 # run the tests
 - name: run tests
   goss: executable=/tmp/degoss/bin/goss path="{{ item }}" format="{{ format }}"
   with_fileglob: /tmp/degoss/tests/*.yml

Namely, when create goss directories is run, it triggers the clean handler:

---
# handlers file for degoss
 - name: clean
   file: path=/tmp/degoss state=absent

Due to the nature of my module, I want the clean handler to always run, even if other tasks in the role have failed. From my cursory testing, if run tests fails, the handler is never called and the temporary files are left on the target machine.

Is there a way from within my role to force Ansible to run this handler regardless of what happened in the tasks?

Answer 1

    ---
    # tasks file for block
    - name: command 0
      shell: uname -i

    - block:
      - name: command1
        shell: ls /tmp/
      - name: command2
        shell: ls /tmp/momo

  rescue:
  - name: retour arriere ya eu une erreur
    shell: ls -ls

Answer 2

Quoting the Handlers and Failure chapter:

You can change this behavior with the --force-handlers command-line option, or by including force_handlers: True in a play, or force_handlers = True in ansible.cfg. When handlers are forced, they will run when notified even if a task fails on that host. (Note that certain errors could still prevent the handler from running, such as a host becoming unreachable.)

Answer 3

Here is an example of how to run force_handlers on the playbook. Keep in mind that if you have a task that creates something but can return error even after the creation worked, the notify on the task will not run and will not activate the handler.

---
  - name: handler test
    hosts: localhost
    gather_facts: false
    force_handlers: true
    tasks:

      - name: Return true
        shell: /bin/true
        notify: test_debug

      - name: test broken task
        shell: /bin/false
        notify: test_debug_2

      - name: this one should not run
        debug:
          msg: blabla
        tags:
          - always # This tag will not work

    handlers:
      - name: test_debug
        debug:
          msg: testing error handling

      - name: test_debug_2
        debug:
          msg: testing error handling 2 this one will not run