Ansible CLI cheatsheet

This page shows one or more examples of each Ansible command line utility with some common flags added and a link to the full documentation for the command. This page offers a quick reminder of some common use cases only - it may be out of date or incomplete or both. For canonical documentation, follow the links to the CLI pages.

ansible-playbook

ansible-playbook -i /path/to/my_inventory_file -u my_connection_user -k -f 3 -T 30 -t my_tag -M /path/to/my_modules -b -K my_playbook.yml
Loads my_playbook.yml from the current working directory and:

  • -i - uses my_inventory_file in the path provided for inventory to match the pattern.

  • -u - connects over SSH as my_connection_user.

  • -k - asks for password which is then provided to SSH authentication.

  • -f - allocates 3 forks.

  • -T - sets a 30-second timeout.

  • -t - runs only tasks marked with the tag my_tag.

  • -M - loads local modules from /path/to/my/modules.

  • -b - executes with elevated privileges (uses become).

  • -K - prompts the user for the become password.

See ansible-playbook for detailed documentation.

ansible-galaxy

Installing a collection:

ansible-galaxy collection install mynamespace.mycollection

Downloads mynamespace.mycollection from the configured Galaxy server (galaxy.ansible.com by default).

Listing all installed collections:

ansible-galaxy collection list

See ansible-galaxy for detailed documentation.