ansible.builtin.git module – Deploy software (or files) from git checkouts

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name git even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.git for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

• Manage git checkouts of repositories to deploy files or software.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

• git>=1.7.1 (the command line tool)

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
accept_hostkey boolean	Will ensure or not that -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no is present as an ssh option. Be aware that this disables a protection against MITM attacks. Those using OpenSSH >= 7.5 might want to use accept_newhostkey or set ssh_opts to StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new instead, it does not remove the MITM issue but it does restrict it to the first attempt. Choices: false ← (default) true
accept_newhostkey boolean added in ansible-core 2.12	As of OpenSSH 7.5, -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new can be used which is safer and will only accepts host keys which are not present or are the same. If true, ensure that -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new is present as an ssh option. Choices: false ← (default) true
archive path	Specify archive file path with extension. If specified, creates an archive file of the specified format containing the tree structure for the source tree. Allowed archive formats [“zip”, “tar.gz”, “tar”, “tgz”]. This will clone and perform git archive from local directory as not all git servers support git archive.
archive_prefix string added in ansible-base 2.10	Specify a prefix to add to each file path in archive. Requires archive to be specified.
bare boolean	If true, repository will be created as a bare repo, otherwise it will be a standard repo with a workspace. Choices: false ← (default) true
clone boolean	If false, do not clone the repository even if it does not exist locally. Choices: false true ← (default)
depth integer	Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified number or revisions. The minimum possible value is 1, otherwise ignored. Needs git>=1.9.1 to work correctly.
dest path / required	The path of where the repository should be checked out. This is equivalent to git clone [repo_url] [directory]. The repository named in repo is not appended to this path and the destination directory must be empty. This parameter is required, unless clone is set to false.
executable path	Path to git executable to use. If not supplied, the normal mechanism for resolving binary paths will be used.
force boolean	If true, any modified files in the working repository will be discarded. Prior to 0.7, this was always true and could not be disabled. Prior to 1.9, the default was true. Choices: false ← (default) true
gpg_allowlist aliases: gpg_whitelist list / elements=string added in Ansible 2.9	A list of trusted GPG fingerprints to compare to the fingerprint of the GPG-signed commit. Only used when verify_commit=yes. Use of this feature requires Git 2.6+ due to its reliance on git’s --raw flag to verify-commit and verify-tag. Alias gpg_allowlist is added in version 2.17. Alias gpg_whitelist is deprecated and will be removed in version 2.21. Default: []
key_file path	Specify an optional private key file path, on the target host, to use for the checkout. This ensures IdentitiesOnly=yes is present in ssh_opts.
recursive boolean	If false, repository will be cloned without the --recursive option, skipping sub-modules. Choices: false true ← (default)
reference string	Reference repository (see git clone --reference ...).
refspec string	Add an additional refspec to be fetched. If version is set to a SHA-1 not reachable from any branch or tag, this option may be necessary to specify the ref containing the SHA-1. Uses the same syntax as the git fetch command. An example value could be “refs/meta/config”.
remote string	Name of the remote. Default: "origin"
repo aliases: name string / required	git, SSH, or HTTP(S) protocol address of the git repository.
separate_git_dir path added in Ansible 2.7	The path to place the cloned repository. If specified, Git repository can be separated from working tree.
single_branch boolean added in ansible-core 2.11	Clone only the history leading to the tip of the specified revision. Choices: false ← (default) true
ssh_opts string	Options git will pass to ssh when used as protocol, it works via git‘s GIT_SSH/GIT_SSH_COMMAND environment variables. For older versions it appends GIT_SSH_OPTS (specific to this module) to the variables above or via a wrapper script. Other options can add to this list, like key_file and accept_hostkey. An example value could be -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no (although this particular option is better set by accept_hostkey). The module ensures that BatchMode=yes is always present to avoid prompts.
track_submodules boolean	If true, submodules will track the latest commit on their master branch (or other branch specified in .gitmodules). If false, submodules will be kept at the revision specified by the main project. This is equivalent to specifying the --remote flag to git submodule update. Choices: false ← (default) true
umask any	The umask to set before doing any checkouts, or any other repository maintenance.
update boolean	If false, do not retrieve new revisions from the origin repository. Operations like archive will work on the existing (old) repository and might not respond to changes to the options version or remote. Choices: false true ← (default)
verify_commit boolean	If true, when cloning or checking out a version verify the signature of a GPG signed commit. This requires git version>=2.1.0 to be installed. The commit MUST be signed and the public key MUST be present in the GPG keyring. Choices: false ← (default) true
version string	What version of the repository to check out. This can be the literal string HEAD, a branch name, a tag name. It can also be a SHA-1 hash, in which case refspec needs to be specified if the given revision is not already available. Default: "HEAD"

Attributes

Attribute	Support	Description
check_mode	Support: full	Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.
diff_mode	Support: full	Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode
platform	Platform: posix	Target OS/families that can be operated against

Notes

Note

• If the task seems to be hanging, first verify remote host is in known_hosts. SSH will prompt user to authorize the first contact with a remote host. To avoid this prompt, one solution is to use the option accept_hostkey. Another solution is to add the remote host public key in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts before calling the git module, with the following command: ssh-keyscan -H remote_host.com >> /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts.

Examples

- name: Git checkout
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git'
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    version: release-0.22

- name: Read-write git checkout from github
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: [email protected]:ansible/ansible.git
    dest: /tmp/checkout

- name: Just ensuring the repo checkout exists
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git'
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    update: no

- name: Just get information about the repository whether or not it has already been cloned locally
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: [email protected]:ansible/ansible.git
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    clone: no
    update: no

- name: Checkout a github repo and use refspec to fetch all pull requests
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git'
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    refspec: '+refs/pull/*:refs/heads/*'

- name: Create git archive from repo
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: [email protected]:ansible/ansible.git
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    archive: /tmp/ansible.zip

- name: Clone a repo with separate git directory
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git'
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    separate_git_dir: /tmp/repo

- name: Example clone of a single branch
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: [email protected]:ansible/ansible.git
    dest: /tmp/checkout
    single_branch: yes
    version: master

- name: Avoid hanging when http(s) password is missing
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git'
    dest: /tmp/checkout
  environment:
    GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT: 0 # reports "terminal prompts disabled" on missing password
    # or GIT_ASKPASS: /bin/true # for git before version 2.3.0, reports "Authentication failed" on missing password

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Description
after string	Last commit revision of the repository retrieved during the update. Returned: success Sample: "4c020102a9cd6fe908c9a4a326a38f972f63a903"
before string	Commit revision before the repository was updated, “null” for new repository. Returned: success Sample: "67c04ebe40a003bda0efb34eacfb93b0cafdf628"
git_dir_before string	Contains the original path of .git directory if it is changed. Returned: success Sample: "/path/to/old/git/dir"
git_dir_now string	Contains the new path of .git directory if it is changed. Returned: success Sample: "/path/to/new/git/dir"
remote_url_changed boolean	Contains True or False whether or not the remote URL was changed. Returned: success Sample: true
warnings string	List of warnings if requested features were not available due to a too old git version. Returned: error Sample: "git version is too old to fully support the depth argument. Falling back to full checkouts."

Authors

• Ansible Core Team

• Michael DeHaan

Collection links

• Issue Tracker
• Repository (Sources)
• Communication