ansible-console(1)

💅 ansible-console — the REPL bestie (System administration commands, ansible-console(1))

okay so picture this: you want to run ad-hoc Ansible tasks but you also want a cute little shell with tab completion. that's her. she's ansible-console, and honestly? she ate. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS

usage: ansible-console [-h] [--version] [-v] [-b]
       [--become-method BECOME_METHOD] [--become-user BECOME_USER] [-K |
       --become-password-file BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE] [-i INVENTORY]
       [--list-hosts] [-l SUBSET] [--flush-cache] [--private-key
       PRIVATE_KEY_FILE] [-u REMOTE_USER] [-c CONNECTION] [-T TIMEOUT]
       [--ssh-common-args SSH_COMMON_ARGS] [--sftp-extra-args
       SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS] [--scp-extra-args SCP_EXTRA_ARGS]
       [--ssh-extra-args SSH_EXTRA_ARGS] [-k |
       --connection-password-file CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE] [-C] [-D]
       [--vault-id VAULT_IDS] [-J | --vault-password-file
       VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES] [-f FORKS] [-M MODULE_PATH] [--playbook-dir
       BASEDIR] [-e EXTRA_VARS] [--task-timeout TASK_TIMEOUT] [--step]
       [pattern]

🦋 DESCRIPTION

It's a REPL — a read-eval-print loop, bestie — that lets you run ad-hoc tasks against an inventory of your choosing, from a genuinely nice shell with built-in tab completion. (Fun fact she's based on dominis' ansible-shell. credit where it's due 💖)

She supports a bunch of commands, and you can change her config at runtime — main character energy fr:

• cd [pattern] — change host/group. and yes you can use host patterns, like app*.dc*:!app01* 👑
• list — list the available hosts in your current path
• list groups — list the groups included in the current path
• become — toggle the become flag
• ! — forces the shell module instead of the ansible module (!yum update -y)
• verbosity [num] — set the verbosity level
• forks [num] — set the number of forks
• become_user [user] — set the become_user
• remote_user [user] — set the remote_user
• become_method [method] — set the privilege escalation method
• check [bool] — toggle check mode
• diff [bool] — toggle diff mode
• timeout [integer] — set the timeout of tasks in seconds (0 to disable)
• help [command/module] — display documentation for that command or module 🎀
• exit — exit ansible-console. sad but slay 💅

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✨ COMMON OPTIONS ✨

• host pattern — the positional thingy, she's listed down in ARGUMENTS bestie 🫶
• --become-method 'BECOME_METHOD' — the privilege escalation method to use (default=sudo). run ansible-doc -t become -l to see all the valid choices.
• --become-password-file 'BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE', --become-pass-file 'BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE' — become password file
• --become-user 'BECOME_USER' — run operations as this user (default=root)
• --connection-password-file 'CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE', --conn-pass-file 'CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE' — connection password file
• --flush-cache — clear the fact cache for every host in the inventory. bye facts 👋
• --list-hosts — outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else
• --playbook-dir 'BASEDIR' — since this tool doesn't use playbooks, you use this as a substitute playbook directory. it sets the relative path for lots of features, including roles/, group_vars/, etc.
• --private-key 'PRIVATE_KEY_FILE', --key-file 'PRIVATE_KEY_FILE' — use this file to authenticate the connection
• --scp-extra-args 'SCP_EXTRA_ARGS' — extra args to pass to scp only (e.g. -l)
• --sftp-extra-args 'SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS' — extra args to pass to sftp only (e.g. -f, -l)
• --ssh-common-args 'SSH_COMMON_ARGS' — common args to pass to sftp/scp/ssh (e.g. ProxyCommand)
• --ssh-extra-args 'SSH_EXTRA_ARGS' — extra args to pass to ssh only (e.g. -R)
• --step — one-step-at-a-time: confirm each task before running it. very "are you sure bestie" energy
• --task-timeout 'TASK_TIMEOUT' — set the task timeout limit in seconds; must be a positive integer.
• --vault-id — the vault identity to use. this argument may be specified multiple times.
• --vault-password-file, --vault-pass-file — vault password file
• --version — show the program's version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location, and exit
• -C, --check — don't make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur
• -D, --diff — when changing (small) files and templates, show the differences in those files; works great with --check
• -J, --ask-vault-password, --ask-vault-pass — ask for the vault password
• -K, --ask-become-pass — ask for the privilege escalation password
• -M, --module-path — prepend colon-separated path(s) to the module library (default={{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules" }}). this argument may be specified multiple times.
• -T 'TIMEOUT', --timeout 'TIMEOUT' — override the connection timeout in seconds (the default depends on the connection)
• -b, --become — run operations with become (this does not imply password prompting, jsyk)
• -c 'CONNECTION', --connection 'CONNECTION' — connection type to use (default=ssh)
• -e, --extra-vars — set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON; if it's a filename, prepend it with @. this argument may be specified multiple times.
• -f 'FORKS', --forks 'FORKS' — specify the number of parallel processes to use (default=5)
• -h, --help — show this help message and exit
• -i, --inventory, --inventory-file — specify an inventory host path or a comma separated host list. this argument may be specified multiple times.
• -k, --ask-pass — ask for the connection password
• -l 'SUBSET', --limit 'SUBSET' — further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern
• -u 'REMOTE_USER', --user 'REMOTE_USER' — connect as this user (default=None)
• -v, --verbose — causes Ansible to print more debug messages. adding multiple -v increases the verbosity, and the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. a reasonable level to start at is -vvv, and connection debugging might require -vvvv. this argument may be specified multiple times.

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💜 ARGUMENTS

• host-pattern — a name of a group in the inventory, a shell-like glob selecting hosts in the inventory, or any combination of the two separated by commas. mix and match, she loves that 🎀

🧚 INVENTORY

Ansible stores all the hosts she can potentially operate on in an inventory. that can be a YAML file, an ini-like file, a script, a directory, a list, etc. for additional options, go look at the docs over at <https://docs.ansible.com/>.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT

these environment variables may be specified:

• ANSIBLE_INVENTORY — override the default ansible inventory sources
• ANSIBLE_LIBRARY — override the default ansible module library path
• ANSIBLE_CONFIG — specify an override location for the ansible config file

many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg. for a full list check <https://docs.ansible.com/> or just use the ansible-config command.

🍓 FILES

• /etc/ansible/hosts — default inventory file
• /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg — config file, used if present
• ~/.ansible.cfg — user config file, overrides the default config if present
• ./ansible.cfg — local config file (in the current working directory), assumed to be "project specific", and overrides the rest if present.

as mentioned up there ⬆️, the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable will override all the others. she's the final boss, no cap 👑

🌟 AUTHOR

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan. legend behaviour, honestly 🫶

💖 COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2018 Red Hat, Inc | Ansible. Ansible is released under the terms of the GPLv3 license.

🔥 SEE ALSO

ansible (1), ansible-config (1), ansible-doc (1), ansible-galaxy (1), ansible-inventory (1), ansible-playbook (1), ansible-pull (1), ansible-vault (1)

extensive documentation is available on the documentation site: <<https://docs.ansible.com>>. IRC and mailing list info can be found in the file CONTRIBUTING.md, available at: <<https://github.com/ansible/ansible>>

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and that's the whole page bestie, ily, go run some ad-hoc tasks 💅✨

Ansible 2.22.0 🦋 the ansible-console(1) girlies stay winning, mwah 💋