command – Execute commands on targets¶
Synopsis¶
- The
command
module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments. - The given command will be executed on all selected nodes.
- The command(s) will not be processed through the shell, so variables like
$HOME
and operations like"<"
,">"
,"|"
,";"
and"&"
will not work. Use the shell module if you need these features. - To create
command
tasks that are easier to read than the ones using space-delimited arguments, pass parameters using theargs
task keyword or usecmd
parameter. - Either a free form command or
cmd
parameter is required, see the examples. - For Windows targets, use the win_command module instead.
Parameters¶
Notes¶
Note
- If you want to run a command through the shell (say you are using
<
,>
,|
, etc), you actually want the shell module instead. Parsing shell metacharacters can lead to unexpected commands being executed if quoting is not done correctly so it is more secure to use thecommand
module when possible. creates
,removes
, andchdir
can be specified after the command. For instance, if you only want to run a command if a certain file does not exist, use this.- Check mode is supported when passing
creates
orremoves
. If running in check mode and either of these are specified, the module will check for the existence of the file and report the correct changed status. If these are not supplied, the task will be skipped. - The
executable
parameter is removed since version 2.4. If you have a need for this parameter, use the shell module instead. - For Windows targets, use the win_command module instead.
- For rebooting systems, use the reboot or win_reboot module.
See Also¶
See also
- raw – Executes a low-down and dirty command
- The official documentation on the raw module.
- script – Runs a local script on a remote node after transferring it
- The official documentation on the script module.
- shell – Execute shell commands on targets
- The official documentation on the shell module.
- win_command – Executes a command on a remote Windows node
- The official documentation on the win_command module.
Examples¶
- name: return motd to registered var
command: cat /etc/motd
register: mymotd
- name: Run command if /path/to/database does not exist (without 'args' keyword).
command: /usr/bin/make_database.sh db_user db_name creates=/path/to/database
# 'args' is a task keyword, passed at the same level as the module
- name: Run command if /path/to/database does not exist (with 'args' keyword).
command: /usr/bin/make_database.sh db_user db_name
args:
creates: /path/to/database
# 'cmd' is module parameter
- name: Run command if /path/to/database does not exist (with 'cmd' parameter).
command:
cmd: /usr/bin/make_database.sh db_user db_name
creates: /path/to/database
- name: Change the working directory to somedir/ and run the command as db_owner if /path/to/database does not exist.
command: /usr/bin/make_database.sh db_user db_name
become: yes
become_user: db_owner
args:
chdir: somedir/
creates: /path/to/database
# 'argv' is a parameter, indented one level from the module
- name: Use 'argv' to send a command as a list - leave 'command' empty
command:
argv:
- /usr/bin/make_database.sh
- Username with whitespace
- dbname with whitespace
- name: safely use templated variable to run command. Always use the quote filter to avoid injection issues.
command: cat {{ myfile|quote }}
register: myoutput
Return Values¶
Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:
Status¶
- This module is guaranteed to have backward compatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]
Red Hat Support¶
More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.
Authors¶
- Ansible Core Team
- Michael DeHaan
Hint
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