What are Ansible Facts and how do you use them?

Ansible Facts are system information automatically collected from managed nodes when a playbook runs. They include details about hardware, OS, network configuration, and installed software.

Accessing facts:

- name: Display OS information
  debug:
    msg: "This host runs {{ ansible_distribution }} {{ ansible_distribution_version }}"
- name: Conditional based on facts
  yum:
    name: httpd
    state: present
  when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat"

Custom facts:

- name: Set custom fact
  set_fact:
    custom_variable: "custom_value"
- name: Gather facts manually
  setup:
- name: Disable fact gathering
  hosts: webservers
  gather_facts: false