From 9aea625f63176e6f7b13212f495704305fe692aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Martin Krizek <martin.krizek@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 01:06:43 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] [stable-2.19] ternary: evaluate values lazily (#85752)
 (#85753)

Fixes #85743
(cherry picked from commit 6976e130757cd9e8b1346c21c28174e2903585b9)
---
 changelogs/fragments/85743-lazy-ternary.yml         | 2 ++
 lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py                  | 1 +
 test/integration/targets/filter_core/tasks/main.yml | 7 +++++++
 3 files changed, 10 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 changelogs/fragments/85743-lazy-ternary.yml

diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/85743-lazy-ternary.yml b/changelogs/fragments/85743-lazy-ternary.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e6e4872e668
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/85743-lazy-ternary.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "``ternary`` filter - evaluate values lazily (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/85743)"
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
index f9f9da73a00..a07e14374a3 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ def regex_search(value, regex, *args, **kwargs):
             return items
 
 
+@accept_args_markers
 def ternary(value, true_val, false_val, none_val=None):
     """  value ? true_val : false_val """
     if value is None and none_val is not None:
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/filter_core/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/targets/filter_core/tasks/main.yml
index c11b21c40c6..0d982a7736d 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/filter_core/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/filter_core/tasks/main.yml
@@ -430,6 +430,13 @@
       - '123|ternary("seven", "eight") == "seven"'
       - '"haha"|ternary("seven", "eight") == "seven"'
 
+- name: Verify ternary does not evaluate unused values
+  assert:
+    that:
+      - (false | ternary(undefined_variable, 'seven')) == (false | ternary(d.no_such_key, 'seven'))
+  vars:
+    d: {}
+
 - name: Verify regex_escape raises on posix_extended (failure expected)
   set_fact:
     foo: '{{"]]^"|regex_escape(re_type="posix_extended")}}'