ansible-playbook
Runs Ansible playbooks, executing the defined tasks on the targeted hosts.
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
- --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>
- 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 
- --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. 
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-console(1), ansible-doc(1), ansible-galaxy(1), ansible-inventory(1), ansible-pull(1), ansible-vault(1)
