ansible-playbook(1)

✨ ansible-playbook — the main character of the ansible fam ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to ansible-playbook(1), part of the system administration commands squad. This is the tool that runs Ansible playbooks — and a playbook is basically a configuration + multinode deployment system, like a vibe board that actually executes. Want more deets? The project home page is right here: <https://docs.ansible.com>. iykyk 💅

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🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

usage: ansible-playbook [-h] [--version] [-v] [--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] [--force-handlers] [-b]
       [--become-method BECOME_METHOD] [--become-user BECOME_USER] [-K |
       --become-password-file BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE] [-t TAGS]
       [--skip-tags SKIP_TAGS] [-C] [-D] [-i INVENTORY] [--list-hosts]
       [-l SUBSET] [--flush-cache] [-e EXTRA_VARS] [--vault-id
       VAULT_IDS] [-J | --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES] [-f
       FORKS] [-M MODULE_PATH] [--syntax-check] [--list-tasks]
       [--list-tags] [--step] [--start-at-task START_AT_TASK] playbook
       [playbook ...]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so this is the tool to run Ansible playbooks, which are a configuration and multinode deployment system. literally the whole point. for more info, the project home page is at <https://docs.ansible.com> — go be nosy 🦋

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🎀 COMMON OPTIONS 🎀

• Playbook(s) — the playbook file(s) you're feeding it, bestie. that's the whole assignment 🫶
• --become-method 'BECOME_METHOD' — which privilege escalation method to use (default=sudo). wanna see the valid choices? run ansible-doc -t become -l and it'll show you the menu ✨
• --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 inventory 🧹
• --force-handlers — run handlers even if a task fails. no skipping, periodt 💅
• --list-hosts — outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else. just a lil peek 👀
• --list-tags — list all available tags 🏷️
• --list-tasks — list all tasks that would be executed 📋
• --private-key 'PRIVATE_KEY_FILE', --key-file 'PRIVATE_KEY_FILE' — use this file to authenticate the connection 🗝️
• --scp-extra-args 'SCP_EXTRA_ARGS' — specify extra arguments to pass to scp only (e.g. -l) 📦
• --sftp-extra-args 'SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS' — specify extra arguments to pass to sftp only (e.g. -f, -l) 📁
• --skip-tags — only run plays and tasks whose tags do not match these values. this argument may be specified multiple times 🙅‍♀️
• --ssh-common-args 'SSH_COMMON_ARGS' — specify common arguments to pass to sftp/scp/ssh (e.g. ProxyCommand) 🌐
• --ssh-extra-args 'SSH_EXTRA_ARGS' — specify extra arguments to pass to ssh only (e.g. -R) 🛰️
• --start-at-task 'START_AT_TASK' — start the playbook at the task matching this name ⏩
• --step — one-step-at-a-time: confirm each task before running. very "are you sure bestie" energy 🙈
• --syntax-check — perform a syntax check on the playbook, but do not execute it. read-only queen 👑
• --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 program's version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit. the full résumé, then bounce 💨
• -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. the before/after glow-up reveal ✨
• -J, --ask-vault-password, --ask-vault-pass — ask for vault password 🙋‍♀️
• -K, --ask-become-pass — ask for privilege escalation password 🔐
• -M, --module-path — prepend colon-separated path(s) to 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 (default depends on connection) ⏱️
• -b, --become — run operations with become (does not imply password prompting) 💪
• -c 'CONNECTION', --connection 'CONNECTION' — connection type to use (default=ssh) 🔌
• -e, --extra-vars — set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @. this argument may be specified multiple times 📝
• -f 'FORKS', --forks 'FORKS' — specify number of parallel processes to use (default=5) 🍴
• -h, --help — show this help message and exit 🆘
• -i, --inventory, --inventory-file — specify inventory host path or comma separated host list. this argument may be specified multiple times 📚
• -k, --ask-pass — ask for connection password 🙊
• -l 'SUBSET', --limit 'SUBSET' — further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern 🎯
• -t, --tags — only run plays and tasks tagged with these values. this argument may be specified multiple times 🏷️
• -u 'REMOTE_USER', --user 'REMOTE_USER' — connect as this user (default=None) 👤
• -v, --verbose — causes Ansible to print more debug messages. adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. a reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv. this argument may be specified multiple times 🗣️

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🦋 INVENTORY 🦋

Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory. this can be a YAML file, ini-like file, a script, directory, list, etc. — honestly whatever shape your chaos takes. for additional options, see the documentation on <https://docs.ansible.com/> 📖

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🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

the following 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 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 use the ansible-config command 👑

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🎀 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 current working directory) assumed to be 'project specific' and overrides the rest if present.

as mentioned above, the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable will override all others. it's giving final boss energy 👑🔥

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

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

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

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

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• ansible (1)
• ansible-config (1)
• ansible-console (1)
• ansible-doc (1)
• ansible-galaxy (1)
• ansible-inventory (1)
• ansible-pull (1)
• ansible-vault (1)

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

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and that's the whole page bestie 💅 this icon was brought to you by Ansible 2.22.0, living under the name ansible-playbook(1) — go run some playbooks, slay, and remember: check mode first 🎀✨