ansible-pull
pulls playbooks from a VCS repo and executes them for the local host
Synopsis
usage: ansible-pull [-h] [--version] [-v] [--private-key PRIVATE_KEY_FILE]
[-u REMOTE_USER] [-c CONNECTION] [-T TIMEOUT]
[--ssh-common-args SSH_COMMON_ARGS]
[--sftp-extra-args SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS]
[--scp-extra-args SCP_EXTRA_ARGS]
[--ssh-extra-args SSH_EXTRA_ARGS]
[-k | --connection-password-file CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE]
[--vault-id VAULT_IDS]
[--ask-vault-password | --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES]
[-e EXTRA_VARS] [-t TAGS] [--skip-tags SKIP_TAGS]
[-i INVENTORY] [--list-hosts] [-l SUBSET] [-M MODULE_PATH]
[-K | --become-password-file BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE]
[--purge] [-o] [-s SLEEP] [-f] [-d DEST] [-U URL] [--full]
[-C CHECKOUT] [--accept-host-key] [-m MODULE_NAME]
[--verify-commit] [--clean] [--track-subs] [--check]
[--diff]
[playbook.yml ...]
Description
Used to pull 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.
None of the CLI tools are designed to run concurrently with themselves, you should use an external scheduler and/or locking to ensure there are no clashing operations.
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-password, --ask-vault-pass
ask for vault password
- --become-password-file <BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE>, --become-pass-file <BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE>
Become password file
- --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
- --connection-password-file <CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE>, --conn-pass-file <CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE>
Connection password file
- --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 <PRIVATE_KEY_FILE>, --key-file <PRIVATE_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-pass-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_HOME ~ “/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>
absolute path of repository checkout directory (relative paths are not supported)
- -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
Causes Ansible to print more debug messages. Adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. A reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv.
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
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),