ansible-console
REPL console for executing Ansible tasks.
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]
                    [--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
A REPL that allows for running ad-hoc tasks against a chosen inventory
from a nice shell with built-in tab completion (based on dominis’
ansible-shell).
It supports several commands, and you can modify its configuration at runtime:
- cd [pattern]: change host/group (you can use host patterns eg.:- app*.dc*:!app01*)
- list: list available hosts in the current path
- list groups: list groups included in the current path
- become: toggle the become flag
- !: forces 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 the command or module
- exit: exit- ansible-console
Common Options
- --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 
- --list-hosts
- outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else 
- --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. 
- --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) 
- --step
- one-step-at-a-time: confirm each task before running 
- --task-timeout <TASK_TIMEOUT>
- set task timeout limit in seconds, must be 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 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 
- -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. 
ARGUMENTS
- host-pattern
- A name of a group in the inventory, a shell-like glob selecting hosts in inventory or any combination of the two separated by commas. 
Environment
The following environment variables may be specified.
ANSIBLE_INVENTORY  – Override the default ansible inventory file
ANSIBLE_LIBRARY – Override the default ansible module library path
ANSIBLE_CONFIG – Override the default ansible config file
Many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg
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
License
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)
