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
list
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
list
The email-address(es) the mail is being 'blind' copied to.
This is a list, which may contain address and phrase portions.
body
string
Default:
"$subject"
The body of the email being sent.
cc
list
The email-address(es) the mail is being copied to.
This is a list, which may contain address and phrase portions.
charset
string
Default:
"utf-8"
The character set of email being sent.
from
string
Default:
"root"
The email-address the mail is sent from. May contain address and phrase.
headers
list
Default:
[]
A list of headers which should be added to the message.
Each individual header is specified as header=value (see example below).
host
string
Default:
"localhost"
The mail server.
password
string
If SMTP requires password.
port
integer
Default:
25
The mail server port.
This must be a valid integer between 1 and 65534
secure
string
    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
string / required
The subject of the email being sent.
subtype
string
    Choices:
  • html
  • plain ←
The minor mime type, can be either plain or html.
The major type is always text.
timeout
integer
Default:
20
Sets the timeout in seconds for connection attempts.
to
list
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
string
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

Authors

  • Dag Wieers (@dagwieers)

Hint

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