ansible-pull

pulls playbooks from a VCS repo and executes them for the local host

Synopsis

ansible-pull -U <repository> [options] [<playbook.yml>]

Description

is used to up a remote copy of ansible on each managed node, each set to run via cron and update playbook source via a source repository. This inverts the default push architecture of ansible into a pull architecture, which has near-limitless scaling potential.

The setup playbook can be tuned to change the cron frequency, logging locations, and parameters to ansible-pull. This is useful both for extreme scale-out as well as periodic remediation. Usage of the ‘fetch’ module to retrieve logs from ansible-pull runs would be an excellent way to gather and analyze remote logs from ansible-pull.

Common Options

--accept-host-key

adds the hostkey for the repo url if not already added

--ask-vault-pass

ask for vault password

--check

don’t make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur

--clean

modified files in the working repository will be discarded

--diff

when changing (small) files and templates, show the differences in those files; works great with –check

--full

Do a full clone, instead of a shallow one.

--list-hosts

outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else

--private-key, --key-file

use this file to authenticate the connection

--purge

purge checkout after playbook run

--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

--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)

--track-subs

submodules will track the latest changes. This is equivalent to specifying the –remote flag to git submodule update

--vault-id

the vault identity to use

--vault-password-file

vault password file

--verify-commit

verify GPG signature of checked out commit, if it fails abort running the playbook. This needs the corresponding VCS module to support such an operation

--version

show program’s version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit

-C <CHECKOUT>, --checkout <CHECKOUT>

branch/tag/commit to checkout. Defaults to behavior of repository module.

-K, --ask-become-pass

ask for privilege escalation password

-M, --module-path

prepend colon-separated path(s) to module library (default=~/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules)

-T <TIMEOUT>, --timeout <TIMEOUT>

override the connection timeout in seconds (default=10)

-U <URL>, --url <URL>

URL of the playbook repository

-c <CONNECTION>, --connection <CONNECTION>

connection type to use (default=smart)

-d <DEST>, --directory <DEST>

directory to checkout repository to

-e, --extra-vars

set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @

-f, --force

run the playbook even if the repository could not be updated

-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

-k, --ask-pass

ask for connection password

-l <SUBSET>, --limit <SUBSET>

further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern

-m <MODULE_NAME>, --module-name <MODULE_NAME>

Repository module name, which ansible will use to check out the repo. Choices are (‘git’, ‘subversion’, ‘hg’, ‘bzr’). Default is git.

-o, --only-if-changed

only run the playbook if the repository has been updated

-s <SLEEP>, --sleep <SLEEP>

sleep for random interval (between 0 and n number of seconds) before starting. This is a useful way to disperse git requests

-t, --tags

only run plays and tasks tagged with these values

-u <REMOTE_USER>, --user <REMOTE_USER>

connect as this user (default=None)

-v, --verbose

verbose mode (-vvv for more, -vvvv to enable connection debugging)

Environment

The following environment variables may be specified.

ANSIBLE_CONFIG – Override the default ansible config file

Many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg

Files

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg – Config file, used if present

~/.ansible.cfg – User config file, overrides the default config if present

Author

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan.

See the AUTHORS file for a complete list of contributors.

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-playbook(1), ansible-pull(1), ansible-vault(1),