ansible-playbook - Man Page
Runs Ansible playbooks, executing the defined tasks on the targeted hosts.
Examples (TL;DR)
- Run tasks in playbook:
ansible-playbook playbook
- Run tasks in playbook with custom host [i]nventory:
ansible-playbook playbook -i inventory_file
- Run tasks in playbook with [e]xtra variables defined via the command-line:
ansible-playbook playbook -e "variable1=value1 variable2=value2"
- Run tasks in playbook with [e]xtra variables defined in a JSON file:
ansible-playbook playbook -e "@variables.json"
- Run tasks in playbook for the given tags:
ansible-playbook playbook --tags tag1,tag2
- Run tasks in a playbook starting at a specific task:
ansible-playbook playbook --start-at task_name
- Run tasks in a playbook without making any changes (dry-run):
ansible-playbook playbook --check --diff
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] [--flush-cache] [-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] [-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 ...]
Description
the tool to run Ansible playbooks, which are a configuration and multinode deployment system. See the project home page ( <https://docs.ansible.com> ) for more information.
Common Options
Playbook(s)
- --become-method 'BECOME_METHOD'
privilege escalation method to use (default=sudo), use ansible-doc -t become -l to list 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 inventory
- --force-handlers
run handlers even if a task fails
- --list-hosts
outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else
- --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'
- --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
- --syntax-check
perform a syntax check on the playbook, but do not execute it
- --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
- -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 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. --inventory-file is deprecated. 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.
Inventory
Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory. This can be an YAML file, ini-like file, a script, directory, list, etc. 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.
As mentioned above, the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable will override all others.
Author
Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan.
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-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> >