mail – Send an email

Synopsis

• This module is useful for sending emails from playbooks.
• One may wonder why automate sending emails? In complex environments there are from time to time processes that cannot be automated, either because you lack the authority to make it so, or because not everyone agrees to a common approach.
• If you cannot automate a specific step, but the step is non-blocking, sending out an email to the responsible party to make them perform their part of the bargain is an elegant way to put the responsibility in someone else’s lap.
• Of course sending out a mail can be equally useful as a way to notify one or more people in a team that a specific action has been (successfully) taken.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
attach -	Default: []	A list of pathnames of files to attach to the message. Attached files will have their content-type set to application/octet-stream.
bcc -		The email-address(es) the mail is being 'blind' copied to. This is a list, which may contain address and phrase portions.
body -	Default: "$subject"	The body of the email being sent.
cc -		The email-address(es) the mail is being copied to. This is a list, which may contain address and phrase portions.
charset -	Default: "utf-8"	The character set of email being sent.
from -	Default: "root"	The email-address the mail is sent from. May contain address and phrase.
headers -	Default: []	A list of headers which should be added to the message. Each individual header is specified as header=value (see example below).
host -	Default: "localhost"	The mail server.
password - added in 1.9		If SMTP requires password.
port -	Default: 25	The mail server port. This must be a valid integer between 1 and 65534
secure - added in 2.3	Choices: always never starttls try ←	If always, the connection will only send email if the connection is Encrypted. If the server doesn't accept the encrypted connection it will fail. If try, the connection will attempt to setup a secure SSL/TLS session, before trying to send. If never, the connection will not attempt to setup a secure SSL/TLS session, before sending If starttls, the connection will try to upgrade to a secure SSL/TLS connection, before sending. If it is unable to do so it will fail.
subject - / required		The subject of the email being sent.
subtype - added in 2.0	Choices: html plain ←	The minor mime type, can be either plain or html. The major type is always text.
timeout - added in 2.3	Default: 20	Sets the timeout in seconds for connection attempts.
to -	Default: "root"	The email-address(es) the mail is being sent to. This is a list, which may contain address and phrase portions. aliases: recipients
username - added in 1.9		If SMTP requires username.

Examples

- name: Example playbook sending mail to root
  mail:
    subject: System {{ ansible_hostname }} has been successfully provisioned.
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Sending an e-mail using Gmail SMTP servers
  mail:
    host: smtp.gmail.com
    port: 587
    username: [email protected]
    password: mysecret
    to: John Smith <[email protected]>
    subject: Ansible-report
    body: System {{ ansible_hostname }} has been successfully provisioned.
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Send e-mail to a bunch of users, attaching files
  mail:
    host: 127.0.0.1
    port: 2025
    subject: Ansible-report
    body: Hello, this is an e-mail. I hope you like it ;-)
    from: [email protected] (Jane Jolie)
    to:
    - John Doe <[email protected]>
    - Suzie Something <[email protected]>
    cc: Charlie Root <root@localhost>
    attach:
    - /etc/group
    - /tmp/avatar2.png
    headers:
    - [email protected]
    - X-Special="Something or other"
    charset: us-ascii
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Sending an e-mail using the remote machine, not the Ansible controller node
  mail:
    host: localhost
    port: 25
    to: John Smith <[email protected]>
    subject: Ansible-report
    body: System {{ ansible_hostname }} has been successfully provisioned.

- name: Sending an e-mail using Legacy SSL to the remote machine
  mail:
    host: localhost
    port: 25
    to: John Smith <[email protected]>
    subject: Ansible-report
    body: System {{ ansible_hostname }} has been successfully provisioned.
    secure: always

- name: Sending an e-mail using StartTLS to the remote machine
  mail:
    host: localhost
    port: 25
    to: John Smith <[email protected]>
    subject: Ansible-report
    body: System {{ ansible_hostname }} has been successfully provisioned.
    secure: starttls

Status

• This module is guaranteed to have no backward incompatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
• This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

Authors

• Dag Wieers (@dagwieers)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.