Allow gather_facts: False in a playbook as a way of disabling the fact step if you know

you aren't going to need it.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Ansible Changes By Release
 * error reporting if with_items value is unbound
 * with_items no longer creates lots of tasks, creates one task that makes multiple calls
 * can use host_specific facts inside with_items (see above)
+* at the top level of a playbook, set 'gather_facts: False' to skip fact gathering
 
 0.5 "Amsterdam" ------- July 04, 2012
 

lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py

@@ -274,13 +274,16 @@ class PlayBook(object):
 
         ''' get facts from the remote system '''
         
+        host_list = [ h for h in self.inventory.list_hosts(play.hosts) 
+            if not (h in self.stats.failures or h in self.stats.dark) ]
+
+        if not play.gather_facts:
+            return {}
+
         setup_args = {}
 
         self.callbacks.on_setup()
 
-        host_list = [ h for h in self.inventory.list_hosts(play.hosts) 
-            if not (h in self.stats.failures or h in self.stats.dark) ]
-
         self.inventory.restrict_to(host_list)
 
         # push any variables down to the system

lib/ansible/playbook/play.py

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ class Play(object):
        'hosts', 'name', 'vars', 'vars_prompt', 'vars_files', 
        'handlers', 'remote_user', 'remote_port',
        'sudo', 'sudo_user', 'transport', 'playbook', 
-       'tags', '_ds', '_handlers', '_tasks'
+       'tags', 'gather_facts', '_ds', '_handlers', '_tasks'
     ]
 
     # *************************************************
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ class Play(object):
         self.sudo_user    = ds.get('sudo_user', self.playbook.sudo_user)
         self.transport    = ds.get('connection', self.playbook.transport)
         self.tags         = ds.get('tags', None)
+        self.gather_facts = ds.get('gather_facts', True)
+        print "self.gather_facts: %s" % self.gather_facts
 
         self._update_vars_files_for_host(None)