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ansible.builtin.shell module – Execute shell commands on targets

Note

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

New in version 0.2: of ansible.builtin

Synopsis

• The shell module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments.

• Either a free form command or cmd parameter is required, see the examples.

• It is almost exactly like the ansible.builtin.command module but runs the command through a shell (/bin/sh) on the remote node.

• For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_shell module instead.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
chdir path added in 0.6 of ansible.builtin	Change into this directory before running the command.
cmd string	The command to run followed by optional arguments.
creates path	A filename, when it already exists, this step will not be run.
executable path added in 0.9 of ansible.builtin	Change the shell used to execute the command. This expects an absolute path to the executable.
free_form string	The shell module takes a free form command to run, as a string. There is no actual parameter named ‘free form’. See the examples on how to use this module.
removes path added in 0.8 of ansible.builtin	A filename, when it does not exist, this step will not be run.
stdin string added in 2.4 of ansible.builtin	Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value.
stdin_add_newline boolean added in 2.8 of ansible.builtin	Whether to append a newline to stdin data. Choices: no yes ← (default)
warn boolean added in 1.8 of ansible.builtin	Whether to enable task warnings. Choices: no yes ← (default)

Attributes

Attribute	Support	Description
check_mode	Support: partial while the command itself is arbitrary and cannot be subject to the check mode semantics it adds creates/removes options as a workaround	Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction withought modifying target
diff_mode	Support: none	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
raw	Support: full	Indicates if an action takes a ‘raw’ or ‘free form’ string as an option and has it’s own special parsing of it

Notes

Note

• If you want to execute a command securely and predictably, it may be better to use the ansible.builtin.command module instead. Best practices when writing playbooks will follow the trend of using ansible.builtin.command unless the ansible.builtin.shell module is explicitly required. When running ad-hoc commands, use your best judgement.

• To sanitize any variables passed to the shell module, you should use {{ var | quote }} instead of just {{ var }} to make sure they do not include evil things like semicolons.

• An alternative to using inline shell scripts with this module is to use the ansible.builtin.script module possibly together with the ansible.builtin.template module.

• For rebooting systems, use the ansible.builtin.reboot or ansible.windows.win_reboot module.

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.command

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.command module.

ansible.builtin.raw

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.raw module.

ansible.builtin.script

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.script module.

ansible.windows.win_shell

The official documentation on the ansible.windows.win_shell module.

Examples

- name: Execute the command in remote shell; stdout goes to the specified file on the remote
  ansible.builtin.shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt

- name: Change the working directory to somedir/ before executing the command
  ansible.builtin.shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt
  args:
    chdir: somedir/

# You can also use the 'args' form to provide the options.
- name: This command will change the working directory to somedir/ and will only run when somedir/somelog.txt doesn't exist
  ansible.builtin.shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt
  args:
    chdir: somedir/
    creates: somelog.txt

# You can also use the 'cmd' parameter instead of free form format.
- name: This command will change the working directory to somedir/
  ansible.builtin.shell:
    cmd: ls -l | grep log
    chdir: somedir/

- name: Run a command that uses non-posix shell-isms (in this example /bin/sh doesn't handle redirection and wildcards together but bash does)
  ansible.builtin.shell: cat < /tmp/*txt
  args:
    executable: /bin/bash

- name: Run a command using a templated variable (always use quote filter to avoid injection)
  ansible.builtin.shell: cat {{ myfile|quote }}

# You can use shell to run other executables to perform actions inline
- name: Run expect to wait for a successful PXE boot via out-of-band CIMC
  ansible.builtin.shell: |
    set timeout 300
    spawn ssh admin@{{ cimc_host }}

    expect "password:"
    send "{{ cimc_password }}\n"

    expect "\n{{ cimc_name }}"
    send "connect host\n"

    expect "pxeboot.n12"
    send "\n"

    exit 0
  args:
    executable: /usr/bin/expect
  delegate_to: localhost

# Disabling warnings
- name: Using curl to connect to a host via SOCKS proxy (unsupported in uri). Ordinarily this would throw a warning
  ansible.builtin.shell: curl --socks5 localhost:9000 http://www.ansible.com
  args:
    warn: no

Return Values

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

Key	Description
cmd string	The command executed by the task. Returned: always Sample: “rabbitmqctl join_cluster rabbit@master”
delta string	The command execution delta time. Returned: always Sample: “0:00:00.325771”
end string	The command execution end time. Returned: always Sample: “2016-02-25 09:18:26.755339”
msg boolean	changed Returned: always Sample: true
rc integer	The command return code (0 means success). Returned: always Sample: 0
start string	The command execution start time. Returned: always Sample: “2016-02-25 09:18:26.429568”
stderr string	The command standard error. Returned: always Sample: “ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory”
stderr_lines list / elements=string	The command standard error split in lines. Returned: always Sample: [{“u\u0027ls cannot access foo”: “No such file or directory\u0027”}, “u\u0027ls \u2026\u0027”]
stdout string	The command standard output. Returned: always Sample: “Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master \u2026”
stdout_lines list / elements=string	The command standard output split in lines. Returned: always Sample: [“u\u0027Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master \u2026\u0027”]

Authors

• Ansible Core Team

• Michael DeHaan

Collection links

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