Ansible handlers are not firing?

Question

I'm pretty new to Ansible (running version 2.2.1.0), and so I have been following the basic directory structure so far. Recently I tried to move some tasks to the handlers area, but I'm getting some odd behavior.

My tree structure looks like:

host_inventory
host_vars
site.yml
roles
  common
    handlers
      main.yml
    meta
      main.yml
    tasks
      main.yml
    vars
      main.yml

There are really only two relevant files (I think).

This version of tasks/main.yml DOES call the handler:

roles/common/tasks/main.yml:

---
  - name: make test file
    shell: "touch /home/hello"
    notify: say goodbye

and in roles/common/handlers/main.yml:

---
  - name: say goodbye
    shell: "touch /home/goodbye"

This does NOT call the handler:

roles/common/tasks/main.yml

---
  - name: test for file
    stat:
      path: /home/hello
    notify: say goodbye

roles/common/handlers/main.yml

---
  - name: say goodbye
    shell: "echo something"

I can't understand why my stat tasks are not calling their handlers.

Can anyone provide some insight? I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

Answer 1

Handlers are notified only when task state is changed .
In your example shell task is always in changed state, but stat task is always in ok state.

See documentation for more details.