ansible(1)

📦
version 2.22.0 · 21 versions
, in arch rolling

ansible(1) 💅✨

okay bestie, listen — this is ansible(1), the main character of the Ansible cinematic universe, from the System administration commands family, and I'm gonna walk you through the whole thing. no gatekeeping, no cap. 🫶

✨ Name ✨

ansible — define and run a single task 'playbook' against a set of hosts. that's it, that's the vibe. one task, a whole bunch of hosts. slay. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

usage: ansible [-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] [-P POLL_INTERVAL] [-B SECONDS] [-o] [-t TREE]
       [--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]
       [-e EXTRA_VARS] [--vault-id VAULT_IDS] [-J |
--vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES] [-f FORKS] [-M
MODULE_PATH] [--playbook-dir BASEDIR] [--task-timeout
TASK_TIMEOUT] [-a MODULE_ARGS] [-m MODULE_NAME] pattern

like yes it's a lot of brackets but that's just how it eats. 🍓

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically: ansible is an extra-simple tool/framework/API for doing 'remote things'. lowercase, iconic, humble-ish. and this specific command lets you define and run a single task 'playbook' against a set of hosts — one task, live, right there in your terminal. it's giving main character energy, honestly. 👑

💅 COMMON OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the long part, but you got this. every single one, in order, no skipping. ✨

  • host pattern — your host pattern. the thing you're pointing at. 🎯
  • --become-method 'BECOME_METHOD' — the privilege escalation method to use (default=sudo). run ansible-doc -t become -l to list all the valid choices, iykyk.
  • --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. yeet the cached facts. 🧹
  • --list-hosts — outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else. it's literally just "who would be affected", that's all. 👀
  • --playbook-dir 'BASEDIR' — since this tool does not use playbooks, use this as a substitute playbook directory. this sets the relative path for many features including roles/ group_vars/ etc. fake playbook dir, real functionality. 🎭
  • --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).
  • --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).
  • --task-timeout 'TASK_TIMEOUT' — set the task timeout limit in seconds, must be a positive integer. no zero, no negatives, no vibes-based numbers. ⏰
  • --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. a whole info dump, honestly kind of a flex. 📋
  • -B 'SECONDS', --background 'SECONDS' — run asynchronously, failing after X seconds (default=N/A).
  • -C, --check — don't make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur. window shopping for infra. 🛍️
  • -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 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.
  • -P 'POLL_INTERVAL', --poll 'POLL_INTERVAL' — set the poll interval if using -B (default=15).
  • -T 'TIMEOUT', --timeout 'TIMEOUT' — override the connection timeout in seconds (default depends on connection).
  • -a 'MODULE_ARGS', --args 'MODULE_ARGS' — the action's options in space separated k=v format: -a 'opt1=val1 opt2=val2' or a json string: -a '{"opt1": "val1", "opt2": "val2"}'.
  • -b, --become — run operations with become (does not imply password prompting). important clarification bestie, it does NOT prompt you for anything. 🙈
  • -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). five little worker bees by default. 🐝
  • -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. narrowing the guest list. 💌
  • -m 'MODULE_NAME', --module-name 'MODULE_NAME' — name of the action to execute (default=command).
  • -o, --one-line — condense output. one line. that's the whole thing.
  • -t 'TREE', --tree 'TREE' — log output to this directory.
  • -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. 🗣️

🌈 INVENTORY 🌈

Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory. this can be a YAML file, an ini-like file, a script, a directory, a list, etc. — like, it's flexible, it's fluid. for additional options, see the documentation on <https://docs.ansible.com/>. 📚

🧚 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. 🌟

🎀 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
and as mentioned above, the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable will override all others. it's the final boss of config precedence. 👑

💜 AUTHOR 💜

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

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

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

ansible-config (1), ansible-console (1), ansible-doc (1), ansible-galaxy (1), ansible-inventory (1), ansible-playbook (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>> 🌸

okay that's the whole page, you absolute scholar. this one's brought to you by Ansible 2.22.0 — that's the version, bestie, and yes, she's iconic. mwah, go run some tasks. 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from
  • arch rolling: ansible-core 2.22.0-1 · GPL-3.0-or-later AND BSD-2-Clause AND PSF-2.0 AND MIT AND Apache-2.0
  • 💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms