Ansible fail task but continue running - ansible

Question

I'm currently writing a bunch of checks for Ansible.
It involves contacting remote machines and performing a check.
Based on the result of this check, I make a decision whether it failed or not.
This is the important bit: the task itself never fails. It merely returns a message. I register the result and then analyze it. And based on that I decide if it's a failure or not.
The thing is, I want to add a flag that allows tests to keep running instead of failing.
So the code looks like this:
- name: Check fail.
fail:
msg: "Test failed"
when: "failfast_flag and <the actual check>"
The problem there is, if I make failfast_flag false, it doesn't output red anymore.
I want it to continue with the next tests, in that case, but I also want it to color red, indicating it's an error/fail.
How do I accomplish this?
EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a try in a bit.

Answer 1

Not sure i fully understood your question, but you could use a - block and rescue structure in order to treat the failures and continue the playbook in failure scenarios:
example:
- block:
- name: Check fail.
fail:
msg: "Test failed"
when: "failfast_flag and <the actual check>"
rescue:
- name: do somthing when the task above fails
command: <do somthing>

Answer 2

This is a combination of #edrupado's answer and #Jack's comment.
The idea is to move the error up to the task where you register the value and use a rescue block to fail with an informative message, skipping the fail with a flag.
I have no idea what your actual task to collect data is. I used a dummy example cheking for the presence of a dir/file. You should be able to adapt to you actual scenario.
---
- name: Dummy POC just to test feasability
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- block:
- name: Make sure /whatever dir exists
stat:
path: /whatever
register: whatever
failed_when: not whatever.stat.exists | bool
- debug:
msg: "/whatever exists: Good !"
rescue:
- fail:
msg: /whatever dir must exist.
ignore_errors: "{{ ignore_flag | default(false) | bool }}"
- block:
- name: Make sure /tmp dir exists
stat:
path: /tmp
register: tmpdir
failed_when: not tmpdir.stat.exists | bool
- debug:
msg: "/tmp exists: Good !"
rescue:
- fail:
msg: /tmp dir must exist.
ignore_errors: "{{ ignore_flag | default(false) | bool }}"
Which gives:
$ ansible-playbook /tmp/test.yml
PLAY [Dummy POC just to test feasability] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Make sure /whatever dir exists] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed_when_result": true, "stat": {"exists": false}}
TASK [fail] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "/whatever dir must exist."}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=0 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=1 ignored=0
$ ansible-playbook /tmp/test.yml -e ignore_flag=true
PLAY [Dummy POC just to test feasability] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Make sure /whatever dir exists] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed_when_result": true, "stat": {"exists": false}}
TASK [fail] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "/whatever dir must exist."}
...ignoring
TASK [Make sure /tmp dir exists] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "/tmp exists: Good !"
}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=1 ignored=1