Ansible Configuration Settings

Ansible supports several sources for configuring its behavior, including an ini file named ansible.cfg, environment variables, command-line options, playbook keywords, and variables. See Controlling how Ansible behaves: precedence rules for details on the relative precedence of each source.

The ansible-config utility allows users to see all the configuration settings available, their defaults, how to set them and where their current value comes from. See ansible-config for more information.

The configuration file

Changes can be made and used in a configuration file which will be searched for in the following order:

ANSIBLE_CONFIG (environment variable if set)

ansible.cfg (in the current directory)

~/.ansible.cfg (in the home directory)

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

Ansible will process the above list and use the first file found, all others are ignored.

Note

The configuration file is one variant of an INI format. Both the hash sign (#) and semicolon (;) are allowed as comment markers when the comment starts the line. However, if the comment is inline with regular values, only the semicolon is allowed to introduce the comment. For instance:

# some basic default values...
inventory = /etc/ansible/hosts  ; This points to the file that lists your hosts

Generating a sample `ansible.cfg` file

You can generate a fully commented-out example ansible.cfg file, for example:

$ ansible-config init --disabled > ansible.cfg

You can also have a more complete file that includes existing plugins:

$ ansible-config init --disabled -t all > ansible.cfg

You can use these as starting points to create your own ansible.cfg file.

Avoiding security risks with `ansible.cfg` in the current directory

If Ansible were to load ansible.cfg from a world-writable current working directory, it would create a serious security risk. Another user could place their own config file there, designed to make Ansible run malicious code both locally and remotely, possibly with elevated privileges. For this reason, Ansible will not automatically load a config file from the current working directory if the directory is world-writable.

If you depend on using Ansible with a config file in the current working directory, the best way to avoid this problem is to restrict access to your Ansible directories to particular user(s) and/or group(s). If your Ansible directories live on a filesystem which has to emulate Unix permissions, like Vagrant or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you may, at first, not know how you can fix this as chmod, chown, and chgrp might not work there. In most of those cases, the correct fix is to modify the mount options of the filesystem so the files and directories are readable and writable by the users and groups running Ansible but closed to others. For more details on the correct settings, see:

for Vagrant, the Vagrant documentation covers synced folder permissions.
for WSL, the WSL docs and this Microsoft blog post cover mount options.

If you absolutely depend on storing your Ansible config in a world-writable current working directory, you can explicitly specify the config file via the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable. Please take appropriate steps to mitigate the security concerns above before doing so.

Relative paths for configuration

You can specify a relative path for many configuration options. In most of those cases the path used will be relative to the ansible.cfg file used for the current execution. If you need a path relative to your current working directory (CWD) you can use the {{CWD}} macro to specify it. We do not recommend this approach, as using your CWD as the root of relative paths can be a security risk. For example: cd /tmp; secureinfo=./newrootpassword ansible-playbook ~/safestuff/change_root_pwd.yml.

Common Options

This is a copy of the options available from our release, your local install might have extra options due to additional plugins, you can use the command line utility mentioned above (ansible-config) to browse through those.

ACTION_WARNINGS

Description:

By default Ansible will issue a warning when received from a task action (module or action plugin) These warnings can be silenced by adjusting this setting to False.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: action_warnings

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ACTION_WARNINGS

AGNOSTIC_BECOME_PROMPT

Description:

Display an agnostic become prompt instead of displaying a prompt containing the command line supplied become method

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: agnostic_become_prompt

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_AGNOSTIC_BECOME_PROMPT

ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH

Description:

Specify where to look for the ansible-connection script. This location will be checked before searching $PATH. If null, ansible will start with the same directory as the ansible script.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [persistent_connection]
Key:: ansible_connection_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH

ANSIBLE_COW_ACCEPTLIST

Description:

Accept list of cowsay templates that are ‘safe’ to use, set to empty list if you want to enable all installed templates.

Type:

list

Default:

['bud-frogs', 'bunny', 'cheese', 'daemon', 'default', 'dragon', 'elephant-in-snake', 'elephant', 'eyes', 'hellokitty', 'kitty', 'luke-koala', 'meow', 'milk', 'moofasa', 'moose', 'ren', 'sheep', 'small', 'stegosaurus', 'stimpy', 'supermilker', 'three-eyes', 'turkey', 'turtle', 'tux', 'udder', 'vader-koala', 'vader', 'www']

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: cowsay_enabled_stencils :Version Added: 2.11

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COW_ACCEPTLIST :Version Added: 2.11

ANSIBLE_COW_PATH

Description:

Specify a custom cowsay path or swap in your cowsay implementation of choice

Type:

string

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: cowpath

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COW_PATH

ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION

Description:

This allows you to chose a specific cowsay stencil for the banners or use ‘random’ to cycle through them.

Default:

default

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: cow_selection

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION

ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR

Description:

This option forces color mode even when running without a TTY or the “nocolor” setting is True.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: force_color

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR

ANSIBLE_HOME

Description:

The default root path for Ansible config files on the controller.

Type:

path

Default:

~/.ansible

Version Added:

2.14

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: home

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_HOME

ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR

Description:

This setting allows suppressing colorizing output, which is used to give a better indication of failure and status information.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: nocolor

Environment:

Variable:

ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR
Variable:

NO_COLOR

Version Added:

2.11

ANSIBLE_NOCOWS

Description:

If you have cowsay installed but want to avoid the ‘cows’ (why????), use this.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: nocows

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NOCOWS

ANSIBLE_PIPELINING

Description:

This is a global option, each connection plugin can override either by having more specific options or not supporting pipelining at all. Pipelining, if supported by the connection plugin, reduces the number of network operations required to execute a module on the remote server, by executing many Ansible modules without actual file transfer. It can result in a very significant performance improvement when enabled. However this conflicts with privilege escalation (become). For example, when using ‘sudo:’ operations you must first disable ‘requiretty’ in /etc/sudoers on all managed hosts, which is why it is disabled by default. This setting will be disabled if ANSIBLE_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES is enabled.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:

[connection]

Key:

pipelining
Section:

[defaults]

Key:

pipelining

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PIPELINING

ANY_ERRORS_FATAL

Description:

Sets the default value for the any_errors_fatal keyword, if True, Task failures will be considered fatal errors.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.4

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: any_errors_fatal

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ANY_ERRORS_FATAL

BECOME_ALLOW_SAME_USER

Description:

This setting controls if become is skipped when remote user and become user are the same. I.E root sudo to root. If executable, it will be run and the resulting stdout will be used as the password.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_allow_same_user

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_ALLOW_SAME_USER

BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE

Description:

The password file to use for the become plugin. –become-password-file. If executable, it will be run and the resulting stdout will be used as the password.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.12

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: become_password_file

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE

BECOME_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Become Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/become:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/become" }}

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: become_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_PLUGINS

CACHE_PLUGIN

Description:

Chooses which cache plugin to use, the default ‘memory’ is ephemeral.

Default:

memory

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: fact_caching

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN

CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION

Description:

Defines connection or path information for the cache plugin

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: fact_caching_connection

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION

CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

Description:

Prefix to use for cache plugin files/tables

Default:

ansible_facts

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: fact_caching_prefix

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT

Description:

Expiration timeout for the cache plugin data

Type:

integer

Default:

86400

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: fact_caching_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT

CALLBACKS_ENABLED

Description:

List of enabled callbacks, not all callbacks need enabling, but many of those shipped with Ansible do as we don’t want them activated by default.

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: callbacks_enabled :Version Added: 2.11

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CALLBACKS_ENABLED :Version Added: 2.11

COLLECTIONS_ON_ANSIBLE_VERSION_MISMATCH

Description:

When a collection is loaded that does not support the running Ansible version (with the collection metadata key requires_ansible).

Default:

warning

Choices:

error:

issue a ‘fatal’ error and stop the play
warning:

issue a warning but continue
ignore:

just continue silently

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: collections_on_ansible_version_mismatch

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_ON_ANSIBLE_VERSION_MISMATCH

COLLECTIONS_PATHS

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for collections content. Collections must be in nested subdirectories, not directly in these directories. For example, if COLLECTIONS_PATHS includes '{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/collections" }}', and you want to add my.collection to that directory, it must be saved as '{{ ANSIBLE_HOME} ~ "/collections/ansible_collections/my/collection" }}'.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections" }}

Ini:

Section:

[defaults]

Key:

collections_paths

Deprecated in:

2.19

Deprecated detail:

does not fit var naming standard, use the singular form collections_path instead
Section:

[defaults]

Key:

collections_path

Version Added:

2.10

Environment:

Variable:

ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH

Version Added:

2.10
Variable:

ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATHS

Deprecated in:

2.19

Deprecated detail:

does not fit var naming standard, use the singular form ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH instead

COLLECTIONS_SCAN_SYS_PATH

Description:

A boolean to enable or disable scanning the sys.path for installed collections

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: collections_scan_sys_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_SCAN_SYS_PATH

COLOR_CHANGED

Description:

Defines the color to use on ‘Changed’ task status

Default:

yellow

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: changed

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_CHANGED

COLOR_CONSOLE_PROMPT

Description:

Defines the default color to use for ansible-console

Default:

white

Version Added:

2.7

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: console_prompt

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_CONSOLE_PROMPT

COLOR_DEBUG

Description:

Defines the color to use when emitting debug messages

Default:

dark gray

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: debug

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DEBUG

COLOR_DEPRECATE

Description:

Defines the color to use when emitting deprecation messages

Default:

purple

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: deprecate

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DEPRECATE

COLOR_DIFF_ADD

Description:

Defines the color to use when showing added lines in diffs

Default:

green

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: diff_add

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_ADD

COLOR_DIFF_LINES

Description:

Defines the color to use when showing diffs

Default:

cyan

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: diff_lines

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_LINES

COLOR_DIFF_REMOVE

Description:

Defines the color to use when showing removed lines in diffs

Default:

red

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: diff_remove

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_REMOVE

COLOR_ERROR

Description:

Defines the color to use when emitting error messages

Default:

red

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: error

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_ERROR

COLOR_HIGHLIGHT

Description:

Defines the color to use for highlighting

Default:

white

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: highlight

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT

COLOR_OK

Description:

Defines the color to use when showing ‘OK’ task status

Default:

green

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: ok

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_OK

COLOR_SKIP

Description:

Defines the color to use when showing ‘Skipped’ task status

Default:

cyan

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: skip

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_SKIP

COLOR_UNREACHABLE

Description:

Defines the color to use on ‘Unreachable’ status

Default:

bright red

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: unreachable

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_UNREACHABLE

COLOR_VERBOSE

Description:

Defines the color to use when emitting verbose messages. i.e those that show with ‘-v’s.

Default:

blue

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: verbose

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_VERBOSE

COLOR_WARN

Description:

Defines the color to use when emitting warning messages

Default:

bright purple

Ini:

Section:: [colors]
Key:: warn

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_COLOR_WARN

CONNECTION_FACTS_MODULES

Description:: Which modules to run during a play’s fact gathering stage based on connection
Type:: dict
Default:: {'asa': 'ansible.legacy.asa_facts', 'cisco.asa.asa': 'cisco.asa.asa_facts', 'eos': 'ansible.legacy.eos_facts', 'arista.eos.eos': 'arista.eos.eos_facts', 'frr': 'ansible.legacy.frr_facts', 'frr.frr.frr': 'frr.frr.frr_facts', 'ios': 'ansible.legacy.ios_facts', 'cisco.ios.ios': 'cisco.ios.ios_facts', 'iosxr': 'ansible.legacy.iosxr_facts', 'cisco.iosxr.iosxr': 'cisco.iosxr.iosxr_facts', 'junos': 'ansible.legacy.junos_facts', 'junipernetworks.junos.junos': 'junipernetworks.junos.junos_facts', 'nxos': 'ansible.legacy.nxos_facts', 'cisco.nxos.nxos': 'cisco.nxos.nxos_facts', 'vyos': 'ansible.legacy.vyos_facts', 'vyos.vyos.vyos': 'vyos.vyos.vyos_facts', 'exos': 'ansible.legacy.exos_facts', 'extreme.exos.exos': 'extreme.exos.exos_facts', 'slxos': 'ansible.legacy.slxos_facts', 'extreme.slxos.slxos': 'extreme.slxos.slxos_facts', 'voss': 'ansible.legacy.voss_facts', 'extreme.voss.voss': 'extreme.voss.voss_facts', 'ironware': 'ansible.legacy.ironware_facts', 'community.network.ironware': 'community.network.ironware_facts'}

CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE

Description:

The password file to use for the connection plugin. –connection-password-file.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.12

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: connection_password_file

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE

COVERAGE_REMOTE_OUTPUT

Description:

Sets the output directory on the remote host to generate coverage reports to. Currently only used for remote coverage on PowerShell modules. This is for internal use only.

Type:

str

Version Added:

2.9

Environment:

Variable:: _ANSIBLE_COVERAGE_REMOTE_OUTPUT

Variables:

name:: _ansible_coverage_remote_output

COVERAGE_REMOTE_PATHS

Description:

A list of paths for files on the Ansible controller to run coverage for when executing on the remote host. Only files that match the path glob will have its coverage collected. Multiple path globs can be specified and are separated by :. Currently only used for remote coverage on PowerShell modules. This is for internal use only.

Type:

str

Default:

*

Version Added:

2.9

Environment:

Variable:: _ANSIBLE_COVERAGE_REMOTE_PATH_FILTER

DEFAULT_ACTION_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Action Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/action:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/action" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: action_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ACTION_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_ALLOW_UNSAFE_LOOKUPS

Description:

When enabled, this option allows lookup plugins (whether used in variables as {{lookup('foo')}} or as a loop as with_foo) to return data that is not marked ‘unsafe’. By default, such data is marked as unsafe to prevent the templating engine from evaluating any jinja2 templating language, as this could represent a security risk. This option is provided to allow for backward compatibility, however users should first consider adding allow_unsafe=True to any lookups which may be expected to contain data which may be run through the templating engine late

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.2.3

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: allow_unsafe_lookups

DEFAULT_ASK_PASS

Description:

This controls whether an Ansible playbook should prompt for a login password. If using SSH keys for authentication, you probably do not need to change this setting.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: ask_pass

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ASK_PASS

DEFAULT_ASK_VAULT_PASS

Description:

This controls whether an Ansible playbook should prompt for a vault password.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: ask_vault_pass

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ASK_VAULT_PASS

DEFAULT_BECOME

Description:

Toggles the use of privilege escalation, allowing you to ‘become’ another user after login.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME

DEFAULT_BECOME_ASK_PASS

Description:

Toggle to prompt for privilege escalation password.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_ask_pass

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_ASK_PASS

DEFAULT_BECOME_EXE

Description:

executable to use for privilege escalation, otherwise Ansible will depend on PATH

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_exe

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_EXE

DEFAULT_BECOME_FLAGS

Description:

Flags to pass to the privilege escalation executable.

Default:

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_flags

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_FLAGS

DEFAULT_BECOME_METHOD

Description:

Privilege escalation method to use when become is enabled.

Default:

sudo

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_method

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_METHOD

DEFAULT_BECOME_USER

Description:

The user your login/remote user ‘becomes’ when using privilege escalation, most systems will use ‘root’ when no user is specified.

Default:

root

Ini:

Section:: [privilege_escalation]
Key:: become_user

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_BECOME_USER

DEFAULT_CACHE_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Cache Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/cache:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/cache" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: cache_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CALLBACK_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Callback Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/callback:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/callback" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: callback_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CLICONF_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Cliconf Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/cliconf:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/cliconf" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: cliconf_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CLICONF_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CONNECTION_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Connection Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/connection:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/connection" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: connection_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_DEBUG

Description:

Toggles debug output in Ansible. This is very verbose and can hinder multiprocessing. Debug output can also include secret information despite no_log settings being enabled, which means debug mode should not be used in production.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: debug

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DEBUG

DEFAULT_EXECUTABLE

Description:

This indicates the command to use to spawn a shell under for Ansible’s execution needs on a target. Users may need to change this in rare instances when shell usage is constrained, but in most cases it may be left as is.

Default:

/bin/sh

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: executable

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_EXECUTABLE

DEFAULT_FACT_PATH

Description:

This option allows you to globally configure a custom path for ‘local_facts’ for the implied ansible_collections.ansible.builtin.setup_module task when using fact gathering. If not set, it will fallback to the default from the ansible.builtin.setup module: /etc/ansible/facts.d. This does not affect user defined tasks that use the ansible.builtin.setup module. The real action being created by the implicit task is currently ansible.legacy.gather_facts module, which then calls the configured fact modules, by default this will be ansible.builtin.setup for POSIX systems but other platforms might have different defaults.

Type:

string

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: fact_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FACT_PATH

Deprecated in:

2.18

Deprecated detail:

the module_defaults keyword is a more generic version and can apply to all calls to the M(ansible.builtin.gather_facts) or M(ansible.builtin.setup) actions

Deprecated alternatives:

module_defaults

DEFAULT_FILTER_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Jinja2 Filter Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/filter:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/filter" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: filter_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FILTER_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_FORCE_HANDLERS

Description:

This option controls if notified handlers run on a host even if a failure occurs on that host. When false, the handlers will not run if a failure has occurred on a host. This can also be set per play or on the command line. See Handlers and Failure for more details.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

1.9.1

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: force_handlers

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FORCE_HANDLERS

DEFAULT_FORKS

Description:

Maximum number of forks Ansible will use to execute tasks on target hosts.

Type:

integer

Default:

5

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: forks

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FORKS

DEFAULT_GATHER_SUBSET

Description:

Set the gather_subset option for the ansible_collections.ansible.builtin.setup_module task in the implicit fact gathering. See the module documentation for specifics. It does not apply to user defined ansible.builtin.setup tasks.

Type:

list

Version Added:

2.1

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: gather_subset

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GATHER_SUBSET

Deprecated in:

2.18

Deprecated detail:

the module_defaults keyword is a more generic version and can apply to all calls to the M(ansible.builtin.gather_facts) or M(ansible.builtin.setup) actions

Deprecated alternatives:

module_defaults

DEFAULT_GATHER_TIMEOUT

Description:

Set the timeout in seconds for the implicit fact gathering, see the module documentation for specifics. It does not apply to user defined ansible_collections.ansible.builtin.setup_module tasks.

Type:

integer

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: gather_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GATHER_TIMEOUT

Deprecated in:

2.18

Deprecated detail:

the module_defaults keyword is a more generic version and can apply to all calls to the M(ansible.builtin.gather_facts) or M(ansible.builtin.setup) actions

Deprecated alternatives:

module_defaults

DEFAULT_GATHERING

Description:

This setting controls the default policy of fact gathering (facts discovered about remote systems). This option can be useful for those wishing to save fact gathering time. Both ‘smart’ and ‘explicit’ will use the cache plugin.

Default:

implicit

Choices:

implicit:

the cache plugin will be ignored and facts will be gathered per play unless ‘gather_facts: False’ is set.
explicit:

facts will not be gathered unless directly requested in the play.
smart:

each new host that has no facts discovered will be scanned, but if the same host is addressed in multiple plays it will not be contacted again in the run.

Version Added:

1.6

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: gathering

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GATHERING

DEFAULT_HASH_BEHAVIOUR

Description:

This setting controls how duplicate definitions of dictionary variables (aka hash, map, associative array) are handled in Ansible. This does not affect variables whose values are scalars (integers, strings) or arrays. WARNING, changing this setting is not recommended as this is fragile and makes your content (plays, roles, collections) non portable, leading to continual confusion and misuse. Don’t change this setting unless you think you have an absolute need for it. We recommend avoiding reusing variable names and relying on the combine filter and vars and varnames lookups to create merged versions of the individual variables. In our experience this is rarely really needed and a sign that too much complexity has been introduced into the data structures and plays. For some uses you can also look into custom vars_plugins to merge on input, even substituting the default host_group_vars that is in charge of parsing the host_vars/ and group_vars/ directories. Most users of this setting are only interested in inventory scope, but the setting itself affects all sources and makes debugging even harder. All playbooks and roles in the official examples repos assume the default for this setting. Changing the setting to merge applies across variable sources, but many sources will internally still overwrite the variables. For example include_vars will dedupe variables internally before updating Ansible, with ‘last defined’ overwriting previous definitions in same file. The Ansible project recommends you avoid ``merge`` for new projects. It is the intention of the Ansible developers to eventually deprecate and remove this setting, but it is being kept as some users do heavily rely on it. New projects should avoid ‘merge’.

Type:

string

Default:

replace

Choices:

replace:

Any variable that is defined more than once is overwritten using the order from variable precedence rules (highest wins).
merge:

Any dictionary variable will be recursively merged with new definitions across the different variable definition sources.

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: hash_behaviour

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_HASH_BEHAVIOUR

DEFAULT_HOST_LIST

Description:

Comma separated list of Ansible inventory sources

Type:

pathlist

Default:

/etc/ansible/hosts

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: inventory

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY

DEFAULT_HTTPAPI_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for HttpApi Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/httpapi:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/httpapi" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: httpapi_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_HTTPAPI_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_INTERNAL_POLL_INTERVAL

Description:

This sets the interval (in seconds) of Ansible internal processes polling each other. Lower values improve performance with large playbooks at the expense of extra CPU load. Higher values are more suitable for Ansible usage in automation scenarios, when UI responsiveness is not required but CPU usage might be a concern. The default corresponds to the value hardcoded in Ansible <= 2.1

Type:

float

Default:

0.001

Version Added:

2.2

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: internal_poll_interval

DEFAULT_INVENTORY_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Inventory Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/inventory:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/inventory" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: inventory_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_JINJA2_EXTENSIONS

Description:

This is a developer-specific feature that allows enabling additional Jinja2 extensions. See the Jinja2 documentation for details. If you do not know what these do, you probably don’t need to change this setting :)

Default:

[]

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: jinja2_extensions

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_JINJA2_EXTENSIONS

DEFAULT_JINJA2_NATIVE

Description:

This option preserves variable types during template operations.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.7

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: jinja2_native

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_JINJA2_NATIVE

DEFAULT_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES

Description:

Enables/disables the cleaning up of the temporary files Ansible used to execute the tasks on the remote. If this option is enabled it will disable ANSIBLE_PIPELINING.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: keep_remote_files

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES

DEFAULT_LIBVIRT_LXC_NOSECLABEL

Description:

This setting causes libvirt to connect to lxc containers by passing –noseclabel to virsh. This is necessary when running on systems which do not have SELinux.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.1

Ini:

Section:: [selinux]
Key:: libvirt_lxc_noseclabel

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LIBVIRT_LXC_NOSECLABEL

DEFAULT_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

Description:

Controls whether callback plugins are loaded when running /usr/bin/ansible. This may be used to log activity from the command line, send notifications, and so on. Callback plugins are always loaded for ansible-playbook.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

1.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: bin_ansible_callbacks

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_LOCAL_TMP

Description:

Temporary directory for Ansible to use on the controller.

Type:

tmppath

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/tmp" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: local_tmp

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOCAL_TEMP

DEFAULT_LOG_FILTER

Description:

List of logger names to filter out of the log file

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: log_filter

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOG_FILTER

DEFAULT_LOG_PATH

Description:

File to which Ansible will log on the controller. When empty logging is disabled.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: log_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOG_PATH

DEFAULT_LOOKUP_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Lookup Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/lookup:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/lookup" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: lookup_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOOKUP_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_MANAGED_STR

Description:

Sets the macro for the ‘ansible_managed’ variable available for ansible_collections.ansible.builtin.template_module and ansible_collections.ansible.windows.win_template_module. This is only relevant for those two modules.

Default:

Ansible managed

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: ansible_managed

DEFAULT_MODULE_ARGS

Description:

This sets the default arguments to pass to the ansible adhoc binary if no -a is specified.

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_args

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_MODULE_ARGS

DEFAULT_MODULE_COMPRESSION

Description:

Compression scheme to use when transferring Python modules to the target.

Default:

ZIP_DEFLATED

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_compression

Variables:

name:: ansible_module_compression

DEFAULT_MODULE_NAME

Description:

Module to use with the ansible AdHoc command, if none is specified via -m.

Default:

command

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_name

DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Modules.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: library

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LIBRARY

DEFAULT_MODULE_UTILS_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Module utils files, which are shared by modules.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/module_utils:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/module_utils" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_utils

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_MODULE_UTILS

DEFAULT_NETCONF_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Netconf Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/netconf:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/netconf" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: netconf_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NETCONF_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_NO_LOG

Description:

Toggle Ansible’s display and logging of task details, mainly used to avoid security disclosures.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: no_log

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NO_LOG

DEFAULT_NO_TARGET_SYSLOG

Description:

Toggle Ansible logging to syslog on the target when it executes tasks. On Windows hosts this will disable a newer style PowerShell modules from writing to the event log.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: no_target_syslog

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NO_TARGET_SYSLOG

Variables:

name:: ansible_no_target_syslog :Version Added: 2.10

DEFAULT_NULL_REPRESENTATION

Description:

What templating should return as a ‘null’ value. When not set it will let Jinja2 decide.

Type:

raw

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: null_representation

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NULL_REPRESENTATION

DEFAULT_POLL_INTERVAL

Description:

For asynchronous tasks in Ansible (covered in Asynchronous Actions and Polling), this is how often to check back on the status of those tasks when an explicit poll interval is not supplied. The default is a reasonably moderate 15 seconds which is a tradeoff between checking in frequently and providing a quick turnaround when something may have completed.

Type:

integer

Default:

15

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: poll_interval

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_POLL_INTERVAL

DEFAULT_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

Description:

Option for connections using a certificate or key file to authenticate, rather than an agent or passwords, you can set the default value here to avoid re-specifying –private-key with every invocation.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: private_key_file

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

DEFAULT_PRIVATE_ROLE_VARS

Description:

By default, imported roles publish their variables to the play and other roles, this setting can avoid that. This was introduced as a way to reset role variables to default values if a role is used more than once in a playbook. Included roles only make their variables public at execution, unlike imported roles which happen at playbook compile time.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: private_role_vars

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_ROLE_VARS

DEFAULT_REMOTE_PORT

Description:

Port to use in remote connections, when blank it will use the connection plugin default.

Type:

integer

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: remote_port

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_PORT

DEFAULT_REMOTE_USER

Description:

Sets the login user for the target machines When blank it uses the connection plugin’s default, normally the user currently executing Ansible.

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: remote_user

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER

DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Roles.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/roles:/usr/share/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: roles_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH

DEFAULT_SELINUX_SPECIAL_FS

Description:

Some filesystems do not support safe operations and/or return inconsistent errors, this setting makes Ansible ‘tolerate’ those in the list w/o causing fatal errors. Data corruption may occur and writes are not always verified when a filesystem is in the list.

Type:

list

Default:

fuse, nfs, vboxsf, ramfs, 9p, vfat

Ini:

Section:: [selinux]
Key:: special_context_filesystems

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SELINUX_SPECIAL_FS :Version Added: 2.9

DEFAULT_STDOUT_CALLBACK

Description:

Set the main callback used to display Ansible output. You can only have one at a time. You can have many other callbacks, but just one can be in charge of stdout. See Callback plugins for a list of available options.

Default:

default

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: stdout_callback

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK

DEFAULT_STRATEGY

Description:

Set the default strategy used for plays.

Default:

linear

Version Added:

2.3

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: strategy

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_STRATEGY

DEFAULT_STRATEGY_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Strategy Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/strategy:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/strategy" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: strategy_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_STRATEGY_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_SU

Description:

Toggle the use of “su” for tasks.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: su

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SU

DEFAULT_SYSLOG_FACILITY

Description:

Syslog facility to use when Ansible logs to the remote target

Default:

LOG_USER

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: syslog_facility

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SYSLOG_FACILITY

DEFAULT_TERMINAL_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Terminal Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/terminal:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/terminal" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: terminal_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TERMINAL_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_TEST_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Jinja2 Test Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/test:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/test" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: test_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TEST_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_TIMEOUT

Description:

This is the default timeout for connection plugins to use.

Type:

integer

Default:

10

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TIMEOUT

DEFAULT_TRANSPORT

Description:

Can be any connection plugin available to your ansible installation. There is also a (DEPRECATED) special ‘smart’ option, that will toggle between ‘ssh’ and ‘paramiko’ depending on controller OS and ssh versions.

Default:

ssh

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: transport

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TRANSPORT

DEFAULT_UNDEFINED_VAR_BEHAVIOR

Description:

When True, this causes ansible templating to fail steps that reference variable names that are likely typoed. Otherwise, any ‘{{ template_expression }}’ that contains undefined variables will be rendered in a template or ansible action line exactly as written.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

1.3

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: error_on_undefined_vars

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ERROR_ON_UNDEFINED_VARS

DEFAULT_VARS_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Vars Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/vars:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/vars" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vars_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VARS_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_VAULT_ENCRYPT_IDENTITY

Description:

The vault_id to use for encrypting by default. If multiple vault_ids are provided, this specifies which to use for encryption. The –encrypt-vault-id cli option overrides the configured value.

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_encrypt_identity

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_ENCRYPT_IDENTITY

DEFAULT_VAULT_ID_MATCH

Description:

If true, decrypting vaults with a vault id will only try the password from the matching vault-id

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_id_match

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_ID_MATCH

DEFAULT_VAULT_IDENTITY

Description:

The label to use for the default vault id label in cases where a vault id label is not provided

Default:

default

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_identity

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_IDENTITY

DEFAULT_VAULT_IDENTITY_LIST

Description:

A list of vault-ids to use by default. Equivalent to multiple –vault-id args. Vault-ids are tried in order.

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_identity_list

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_IDENTITY_LIST

DEFAULT_VAULT_PASSWORD_FILE

Description:

The vault password file to use. Equivalent to –vault-password-file or –vault-id If executable, it will be run and the resulting stdout will be used as the password.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_password_file

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_PASSWORD_FILE

DEFAULT_VERBOSITY

Description:

Sets the default verbosity, equivalent to the number of -v passed in the command line.

Type:

integer

Default:

0

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: verbosity

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VERBOSITY

DEPRECATION_WARNINGS

Description:

Toggle to control the showing of deprecation warnings

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: deprecation_warnings

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS

DEVEL_WARNING

Description:

Toggle to control showing warnings related to running devel

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: devel_warning

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DEVEL_WARNING

DIFF_ALWAYS

Description:

Configuration toggle to tell modules to show differences when in ‘changed’ status, equivalent to --diff.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [diff]
Key:: always

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DIFF_ALWAYS

DIFF_CONTEXT

Description:

How many lines of context to show when displaying the differences between files.

Type:

integer

Default:

3

Ini:

Section:: [diff]
Key:: context

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DIFF_CONTEXT

DISPLAY_ARGS_TO_STDOUT

Description:

Normally ansible-playbook will print a header for each task that is run. These headers will contain the name: field from the task if you specified one. If you didn’t then ansible-playbook uses the task’s action to help you tell which task is presently running. Sometimes you run many of the same action and so you want more information about the task to differentiate it from others of the same action. If you set this variable to True in the config then ansible-playbook will also include the task’s arguments in the header. This setting defaults to False because there is a chance that you have sensitive values in your parameters and you do not want those to be printed. If you set this to True you should be sure that you have secured your environment’s stdout (no one can shoulder surf your screen and you aren’t saving stdout to an insecure file) or made sure that all of your playbooks explicitly added the no_log: True parameter to tasks which have sensitive values See How do I keep secret data in my playbook? for more information.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.1

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: display_args_to_stdout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DISPLAY_ARGS_TO_STDOUT

DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS

Description:

Toggle to control displaying skipped task/host entries in a task in the default callback

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: display_skipped_hosts

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS

DOC_FRAGMENT_PLUGIN_PATH

Description:

Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Documentation Fragments Plugins.

Type:

pathspec

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/plugins/doc_fragments:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/doc_fragments" }}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: doc_fragment_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DOC_FRAGMENT_PLUGINS

DOCSITE_ROOT_URL

Description:

Root docsite URL used to generate docs URLs in warning/error text; must be an absolute URL with valid scheme and trailing slash.

Default:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: docsite_root_url

DUPLICATE_YAML_DICT_KEY

Description:

By default Ansible will issue a warning when a duplicate dict key is encountered in YAML. These warnings can be silenced by adjusting this setting to False.

Type:

string

Default:

warn

Choices:

error:

issue a ‘fatal’ error and stop the play
warn:

issue a warning but continue
ignore:

just continue silently

Version Added:

2.9

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: duplicate_dict_key

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_DUPLICATE_YAML_DICT_KEY

EDITOR

Default:

vi

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: editor :Version Added: 2.15

Environment:

Variable:

ANSIBLE_EDITOR

Version Added:

2.15
Variable:

EDITOR

ENABLE_TASK_DEBUGGER

Description:

Whether or not to enable the task debugger, this previously was done as a strategy plugin. Now all strategy plugins can inherit this behavior. The debugger defaults to activating when a task is failed on unreachable. Use the debugger keyword for more flexibility.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: enable_task_debugger

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ENABLE_TASK_DEBUGGER

ERROR_ON_MISSING_HANDLER

Description:

Toggle to allow missing handlers to become a warning instead of an error when notifying.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: error_on_missing_handler

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_ERROR_ON_MISSING_HANDLER

FACTS_MODULES

Description:

Which modules to run during a play’s fact gathering stage, using the default of ‘smart’ will try to figure it out based on connection type. If adding your own modules but you still want to use the default Ansible facts, you will want to include ‘setup’ or corresponding network module to the list (if you add ‘smart’, Ansible will also figure it out). This does not affect explicit calls to the ‘setup’ module, but does always affect the ‘gather_facts’ action (implicit or explicit).

Type:

list

Default:

['smart']

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: facts_modules

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_FACTS_MODULES

Variables:

name:: ansible_facts_modules

GALAXY_CACHE_DIR

Description:

The directory that stores cached responses from a Galaxy server. This is only used by the ansible-galaxy collection install and download commands. Cache files inside this dir will be ignored if they are world writable.

Type:

path

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/galaxy_cache" }}

Version Added:

2.11

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: cache_dir

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_CACHE_DIR

GALAXY_COLLECTION_SKELETON

Description:

Collection skeleton directory to use as a template for the init action in ansible-galaxy collection, same as --collection-skeleton.

Type:

path

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: collection_skeleton

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_COLLECTION_SKELETON

GALAXY_COLLECTION_SKELETON_IGNORE

Description:

patterns of files to ignore inside a Galaxy collection skeleton directory

Type:

list

Default:

['^.git$', '^.*/.git_keep$']

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: collection_skeleton_ignore

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_COLLECTION_SKELETON_IGNORE

GALAXY_COLLECTIONS_PATH_WARNING

Description:

whether ansible-galaxy collection install should warn about --collections-path missing from configured COLLECTIONS_PATHS

Type:

bool

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.16

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: collections_path_warning

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_COLLECTIONS_PATH_WARNING

GALAXY_DISABLE_GPG_VERIFY

Description:

Disable GPG signature verification during collection installation.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.13

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: disable_gpg_verify

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_DISABLE_GPG_VERIFY

GALAXY_DISPLAY_PROGRESS

Description:

Some steps in ansible-galaxy display a progress wheel which can cause issues on certain displays or when outputting the stdout to a file. This config option controls whether the display wheel is shown or not. The default is to show the display wheel if stdout has a tty.

Type:

bool

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.10

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: display_progress

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_DISPLAY_PROGRESS

GALAXY_GPG_KEYRING

Description:

Configure the keyring used for GPG signature verification during collection installation and verification.

Type:

path

Version Added:

2.13

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: gpg_keyring

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_GPG_KEYRING

GALAXY_IGNORE_CERTS

Description:

If set to yes, ansible-galaxy will not validate TLS certificates. This can be useful for testing against a server with a self-signed certificate.

Type:

boolean

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: ignore_certs

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_IGNORE

GALAXY_IGNORE_INVALID_SIGNATURE_STATUS_CODES

Description:

A list of GPG status codes to ignore during GPG signature verification. See L(https://github.com/gpg/gnupg/blob/master/doc/DETAILS#general-status-codes) for status code descriptions. If fewer signatures successfully verify the collection than GALAXY_REQUIRED_VALID_SIGNATURE_COUNT, signature verification will fail even if all error codes are ignored.

Type:

list

Choices:

EXPSIG
EXPKEYSIG
REVKEYSIG
BADSIG
ERRSIG
NO_PUBKEY
MISSING_PASSPHRASE
BAD_PASSPHRASE
NODATA
UNEXPECTED
ERROR
FAILURE
BADARMOR
KEYEXPIRED
KEYREVOKED
NO_SECKEY

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: ignore_signature_status_codes

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_IGNORE_SIGNATURE_STATUS_CODES

GALAXY_REQUIRED_VALID_SIGNATURE_COUNT

Description:

The number of signatures that must be successful during GPG signature verification while installing or verifying collections. This should be a positive integer or all to indicate all signatures must successfully validate the collection. Prepend + to the value to fail if no valid signatures are found for the collection.

Type:

str

Default:

1

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: required_valid_signature_count

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_REQUIRED_VALID_SIGNATURE_COUNT

GALAXY_ROLE_SKELETON

Description:

Role skeleton directory to use as a template for the init action in ansible-galaxy/ansible-galaxy role, same as --role-skeleton.

Type:

path

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: role_skeleton

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_ROLE_SKELETON

GALAXY_ROLE_SKELETON_IGNORE

Description:

patterns of files to ignore inside a Galaxy role or collection skeleton directory

Type:

list

Default:

['^.git$', '^.*/.git_keep$']

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: role_skeleton_ignore

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_ROLE_SKELETON_IGNORE

GALAXY_SERVER

Description:

URL to prepend when roles don’t specify the full URI, assume they are referencing this server as the source.

Default:

https://galaxy.ansible.com

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: server

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER

GALAXY_SERVER_LIST

Description:

A list of Galaxy servers to use when installing a collection. The value corresponds to the config ini header [galaxy_server.{{item}}] which defines the server details. See Configuring the ansible-galaxy client for more details on how to define a Galaxy server. The order of servers in this list is used to as the order in which a collection is resolved. Setting this config option will ignore the GALAXY_SERVER config option.

Type:

list

Version Added:

2.9

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: server_list

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_LIST

GALAXY_SERVER_TIMEOUT

Description:

The default timeout for Galaxy API calls. Galaxy servers that don’t configure a specific timeout will fall back to this value.

Type:

int

Default:

60

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: server_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_TIMEOUT

GALAXY_TOKEN_PATH

Description:

Local path to galaxy access token file

Type:

path

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/galaxy_token" }}

Version Added:

2.9

Ini:

Section:: [galaxy]
Key:: token_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_TOKEN_PATH

HOST_KEY_CHECKING

Description:

Set this to “False” if you want to avoid host key checking by the underlying tools Ansible uses to connect to the host

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: host_key_checking

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING

HOST_PATTERN_MISMATCH

Description:

This setting changes the behaviour of mismatched host patterns, it allows you to force a fatal error, a warning or just ignore it

Default:

warning

Choices:

error:

issue a ‘fatal’ error and stop the play
warning:

issue a warning but continue
ignore:

just continue silently

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: host_pattern_mismatch

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_HOST_PATTERN_MISMATCH

INJECT_FACTS_AS_VARS

Description:

Facts are available inside the ansible_facts variable, this setting also pushes them as their own vars in the main namespace. Unlike inside the ansible_facts dictionary, these will have an ansible_ prefix.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: inject_facts_as_vars

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INJECT_FACT_VARS

INTERPRETER_PYTHON

Description:

Path to the Python interpreter to be used for module execution on remote targets, or an automatic discovery mode. Supported discovery modes are auto (the default), auto_silent, auto_legacy, and auto_legacy_silent. All discovery modes employ a lookup table to use the included system Python (on distributions known to include one), falling back to a fixed ordered list of well-known Python interpreter locations if a platform-specific default is not available. The fallback behavior will issue a warning that the interpreter should be set explicitly (since interpreters installed later may change which one is used). This warning behavior can be disabled by setting auto_silent or auto_legacy_silent. The value of auto_legacy provides all the same behavior, but for backwards-compatibility with older Ansible releases that always defaulted to /usr/bin/python, will use that interpreter if present.

Default:

auto

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: interpreter_python

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PYTHON_INTERPRETER

Variables:

name:: ansible_python_interpreter

INTERPRETER_PYTHON_FALLBACK

Type:

list

Default:

['python3.12', 'python3.11', 'python3.10', 'python3.9', 'python3.8', 'python3.7', 'python3.6', '/usr/bin/python3', '/usr/libexec/platform-python', 'python2.7', '/usr/bin/python', 'python']

Version Added:

2.8

Variables:

name:: ansible_interpreter_python_fallback

INVALID_TASK_ATTRIBUTE_FAILED

Description:

If ‘false’, invalid attributes for a task will result in warnings instead of errors

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.7

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: invalid_task_attribute_failed

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVALID_TASK_ATTRIBUTE_FAILED

INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED

Description:

If ‘true’, it is a fatal error when any given inventory source cannot be successfully parsed by any available inventory plugin; otherwise, this situation only attracts a warning.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.7

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: any_unparsed_is_failed

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED

INVENTORY_CACHE_ENABLED

Description:

Toggle to turn on inventory caching. This setting has been moved to the individual inventory plugins as a plugin option Inventory plugins. The existing configuration settings are still accepted with the inventory plugin adding additional options from inventory configuration. This message will be removed in 2.16.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: cache

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN

Description:

The plugin for caching inventory. This setting has been moved to the individual inventory plugins as a plugin option Inventory plugins. The existing configuration settings are still accepted with the inventory plugin adding additional options from inventory and fact cache configuration. This message will be removed in 2.16.

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: cache_plugin

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION

Description:

The inventory cache connection. This setting has been moved to the individual inventory plugins as a plugin option Inventory plugins. The existing configuration settings are still accepted with the inventory plugin adding additional options from inventory and fact cache configuration. This message will be removed in 2.16.

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: cache_connection

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_CONNECTION

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

Description:

The table prefix for the cache plugin. This setting has been moved to the individual inventory plugins as a plugin option Inventory plugins. The existing configuration settings are still accepted with the inventory plugin adding additional options from inventory and fact cache configuration. This message will be removed in 2.16.

Default:

ansible_inventory_

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: cache_prefix

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT

Description:

Expiration timeout for the inventory cache plugin data. This setting has been moved to the individual inventory plugins as a plugin option Inventory plugins. The existing configuration settings are still accepted with the inventory plugin adding additional options from inventory and fact cache configuration. This message will be removed in 2.16.

Default:

3600

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: cache_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT

INVENTORY_ENABLED

Description:

List of enabled inventory plugins, it also determines the order in which they are used.

Type:

list

Default:

['host_list', 'script', 'auto', 'yaml', 'ini', 'toml']

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: enable_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_ENABLED

INVENTORY_EXPORT

Description:

Controls if ansible-inventory will accurately reflect Ansible’s view into inventory or its optimized for exporting.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: export

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_EXPORT

INVENTORY_IGNORE_EXTS

Description:

List of extensions to ignore when using a directory as an inventory source

Type:

list

Default:

{{(REJECT_EXTS + ('.orig', '.ini', '.cfg', '.retry'))}}

Ini:

Section:

[defaults]

Key:

inventory_ignore_extensions
Section:

[inventory]

Key:

ignore_extensions

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_IGNORE

INVENTORY_IGNORE_PATTERNS

Description:

List of patterns to ignore when using a directory as an inventory source

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Ini:

Section:

[defaults]

Key:

inventory_ignore_patterns
Section:

[inventory]

Key:

ignore_patterns

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_IGNORE_REGEX

INVENTORY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED

Description:

If ‘true’ it is a fatal error if every single potential inventory source fails to parse, otherwise this situation will only attract a warning.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: unparsed_is_failed

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_UNPARSED_FAILED

INVENTORY_UNPARSED_WARNING

Description:

By default Ansible will issue a warning when no inventory was loaded and notes that it will use an implicit localhost-only inventory. These warnings can be silenced by adjusting this setting to False.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.14

Ini:

Section:: [inventory]
Key:: inventory_unparsed_warning

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_UNPARSED_WARNING

JINJA2_NATIVE_WARNING

Description:

Toggle to control showing warnings related to running a Jinja version older than required for jinja2_native

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: jinja2_native_warning

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_JINJA2_NATIVE_WARNING :Deprecated in: 2.17 :Deprecated detail: This option is no longer used in the Ansible Core code base.

LOCALHOST_WARNING

Description:

By default Ansible will issue a warning when there are no hosts in the inventory. These warnings can be silenced by adjusting this setting to False.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.6

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: localhost_warning

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_LOCALHOST_WARNING

MAX_FILE_SIZE_FOR_DIFF

Description:

Maximum size of files to be considered for diff display

Type:

int

Default:

104448

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: max_diff_size

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_MAX_DIFF_SIZE

MODULE_IGNORE_EXTS

Description:

List of extensions to ignore when looking for modules to load This is for rejecting script and binary module fallback extensions

Type:

list

Default:

{{(REJECT_EXTS + ('.yaml', '.yml', '.ini'))}}

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_ignore_exts

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_MODULE_IGNORE_EXTS

MODULE_STRICT_UTF8_RESPONSE

Description:

Enables whether module responses are evaluated for containing non UTF-8 data Disabling this may result in unexpected behavior Only ansible-core should evaluate this configuration

Type:

bool

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: module_strict_utf8_response

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_MODULE_STRICT_UTF8_RESPONSE

NETCONF_SSH_CONFIG

Description:

This variable is used to enable bastion/jump host with netconf connection. If set to True the bastion/jump host ssh settings should be present in ~/.ssh/config file, alternatively it can be set to custom ssh configuration file path to read the bastion/jump host settings.

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [netconf_connection]
Key:: ssh_config

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NETCONF_SSH_CONFIG

NETWORK_GROUP_MODULES

Type:

list

Default:

['eos', 'nxos', 'ios', 'iosxr', 'junos', 'enos', 'ce', 'vyos', 'sros', 'dellos9', 'dellos10', 'dellos6', 'asa', 'aruba', 'aireos', 'bigip', 'ironware', 'onyx', 'netconf', 'exos', 'voss', 'slxos']

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: network_group_modules

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_GROUP_MODULES

OLD_PLUGIN_CACHE_CLEARING

Description:

Previously Ansible would only clear some of the plugin loading caches when loading new roles, this led to some behaviours in which a plugin loaded in previous plays would be unexpectedly ‘sticky’. This setting allows to return to that behaviour.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: old_plugin_cache_clear

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_OLD_PLUGIN_CACHE_CLEAR

PARAMIKO_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [paramiko_connection]
Key:: host_key_auto_add

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PARAMIKO_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD

PARAMIKO_LOOK_FOR_KEYS

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [paramiko_connection]
Key:: look_for_keys

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PARAMIKO_LOOK_FOR_KEYS

PERSISTENT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT

Description:

This controls the amount of time to wait for response from remote device before timing out persistent connection.

Type:

int

Default:

30

Ini:

Section:: [persistent_connection]
Key:: command_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT

PERSISTENT_CONNECT_RETRY_TIMEOUT

Description:

This controls the retry timeout for persistent connection to connect to the local domain socket.

Type:

integer

Default:

15

Ini:

Section:: [persistent_connection]
Key:: connect_retry_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECT_RETRY_TIMEOUT

PERSISTENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT

Description:

This controls how long the persistent connection will remain idle before it is destroyed.

Type:

integer

Default:

30

Ini:

Section:: [persistent_connection]
Key:: connect_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT

PERSISTENT_CONTROL_PATH_DIR

Description:

Path to socket to be used by the connection persistence system.

Type:

path

Default:

{{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ "/pc" }}

Ini:

Section:: [persistent_connection]
Key:: control_path_dir

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONTROL_PATH_DIR

PLAYBOOK_DIR

Description:

A number of non-playbook CLIs have a --playbook-dir argument; this sets the default value for it.

Type:

path

Version Added:

2.9

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: playbook_dir

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PLAYBOOK_DIR

PLAYBOOK_VARS_ROOT

Description:

This sets which playbook dirs will be used as a root to process vars plugins, which includes finding host_vars/group_vars

Default:

top

Choices:

top:

follows the traditional behavior of using the top playbook in the chain to find the root directory.
bottom:

follows the 2.4.0 behavior of using the current playbook to find the root directory.
all:

examines from the first parent to the current playbook.

Version Added:

2.4.1

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: playbook_vars_root

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PLAYBOOK_VARS_ROOT

PLUGIN_FILTERS_CFG

Description:

A path to configuration for filtering which plugins installed on the system are allowed to be used. See Rejecting modules for details of the filter file’s format. The default is /etc/ansible/plugin_filters.yml

Type:

path

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.5.0

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: plugin_filters_cfg

PYTHON_MODULE_RLIMIT_NOFILE

Description:

Attempts to set RLIMIT_NOFILE soft limit to the specified value when executing Python modules (can speed up subprocess usage on Python 2.x. See https://bugs.python.org/issue11284). The value will be limited by the existing hard limit. Default value of 0 does not attempt to adjust existing system-defined limits.

Default:

0

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: python_module_rlimit_nofile

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PYTHON_MODULE_RLIMIT_NOFILE

Variables:

name:: ansible_python_module_rlimit_nofile

RETRY_FILES_ENABLED

Description:

This controls whether a failed Ansible playbook should create a .retry file.

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: retry_files_enabled

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_RETRY_FILES_ENABLED

RETRY_FILES_SAVE_PATH

Description:

This sets the path in which Ansible will save .retry files when a playbook fails and retry files are enabled. This file will be overwritten after each run with the list of failed hosts from all plays.

Type:

path

Default:

None

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: retry_files_save_path

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_RETRY_FILES_SAVE_PATH

RUN_VARS_PLUGINS

Description:

This setting can be used to optimize vars_plugin usage depending on user’s inventory size and play selection.

Type:

str

Default:

demand

Choices:

demand:

will run vars_plugins relative to inventory sources anytime vars are ‘demanded’ by tasks.
start:

will run vars_plugins relative to inventory sources after importing that inventory source.

Version Added:

2.10

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: run_vars_plugins

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_RUN_VARS_PLUGINS

SHOW_CUSTOM_STATS

Description:

This adds the custom stats set via the set_stats plugin to the default output

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: show_custom_stats

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SHOW_CUSTOM_STATS

STRING_CONVERSION_ACTION

Description:

Action to take when a module parameter value is converted to a string (this does not affect variables). For string parameters, values such as ‘1.00’, “[‘a’, ‘b’,]”, and ‘yes’, ‘y’, etc. will be converted by the YAML parser unless fully quoted. Valid options are ‘error’, ‘warn’, and ‘ignore’. Since 2.8, this option defaults to ‘warn’ but will change to ‘error’ in 2.12.

Type:

string

Default:

warn

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: string_conversion_action

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_STRING_CONVERSION_ACTION

Deprecated in:

2.19

Deprecated detail:

This option is no longer used in the Ansible Core code base.

Deprecated alternatives:

There is no alternative at the moment. A different mechanism would have to be implemented in the current code base.

STRING_TYPE_FILTERS

Description:

This list of filters avoids ‘type conversion’ when templating variables Useful when you want to avoid conversion into lists or dictionaries for JSON strings, for example.

Type:

list

Default:

['string', 'to_json', 'to_nice_json', 'to_yaml', 'to_nice_yaml', 'ppretty', 'json']

Ini:

Section:: [jinja2]
Key:: dont_type_filters

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_STRING_TYPE_FILTERS

SYSTEM_WARNINGS

Description:

Allows disabling of warnings related to potential issues on the system running ansible itself (not on the managed hosts) These may include warnings about 3rd party packages or other conditions that should be resolved if possible.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: system_warnings

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SYSTEM_WARNINGS

TAGS_RUN

Description:

default list of tags to run in your plays, Skip Tags has precedence.

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [tags]
Key:: run

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_RUN_TAGS

TAGS_SKIP

Description:

default list of tags to skip in your plays, has precedence over Run Tags

Type:

list

Default:

[]

Version Added:

2.5

Ini:

Section:: [tags]
Key:: skip

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_SKIP_TAGS

TASK_DEBUGGER_IGNORE_ERRORS

Description:

This option defines whether the task debugger will be invoked on a failed task when ignore_errors=True is specified. True specifies that the debugger will honor ignore_errors, False will not honor ignore_errors.

Type:

boolean

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.7

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: task_debugger_ignore_errors

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TASK_DEBUGGER_IGNORE_ERRORS

TASK_TIMEOUT

Description:

Set the maximum time (in seconds) that a task can run for. If set to 0 (the default) there is no timeout.

Type:

integer

Default:

0

Version Added:

2.10

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: task_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TASK_TIMEOUT

TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS

Description:

Make ansible transform invalid characters in group names supplied by inventory sources.

Type:

string

Default:

never

Choices:

always:

it will replace any invalid characters with ‘_’ (underscore) and warn the user
never:

it will allow for the group name but warn about the issue
ignore:

it does the same as ‘never’, without issuing a warning
silently:

it does the same as ‘always’, without issuing a warning

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: force_valid_group_names

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS

USE_PERSISTENT_CONNECTIONS

Description:

Toggles the use of persistence for connections.

Type:

boolean

Default:

False

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: use_persistent_connections

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_USE_PERSISTENT_CONNECTIONS

VALIDATE_ACTION_GROUP_METADATA

Description:

A toggle to disable validating a collection’s ‘metadata’ entry for a module_defaults action group. Metadata containing unexpected fields or value types will produce a warning when this is True.

Type:

bool

Default:

True

Version Added:

2.12

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: validate_action_group_metadata

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VALIDATE_ACTION_GROUP_METADATA

VARIABLE_PLUGINS_ENABLED

Description:

Accept list for variable plugins that require it.

Type:

list

Default:

['host_group_vars']

Version Added:

2.10

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vars_plugins_enabled

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VARS_ENABLED

VARIABLE_PRECEDENCE

Description:

Allows to change the group variable precedence merge order.

Type:

list

Default:

['all_inventory', 'groups_inventory', 'all_plugins_inventory', 'all_plugins_play', 'groups_plugins_inventory', 'groups_plugins_play']

Version Added:

2.4

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: precedence

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_PRECEDENCE

VAULT_ENCRYPT_SALT

Description:

The salt to use for the vault encryption. If it is not provided, a random salt will be used.

Default:

None

Version Added:

2.15

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: vault_encrypt_salt

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VAULT_ENCRYPT_SALT

VERBOSE_TO_STDERR

Description:

Force ‘verbose’ option to use stderr instead of stdout

Type:

bool

Default:

False

Version Added:

2.8

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: verbose_to_stderr

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_VERBOSE_TO_STDERR

WIN_ASYNC_STARTUP_TIMEOUT

Description:

For asynchronous tasks in Ansible (covered in Asynchronous Actions and Polling), this is how long, in seconds, to wait for the task spawned by Ansible to connect back to the named pipe used on Windows systems. The default is 5 seconds. This can be too low on slower systems, or systems under heavy load. This is not the total time an async command can run for, but is a separate timeout to wait for an async command to start. The task will only start to be timed against its async_timeout once it has connected to the pipe, so the overall maximum duration the task can take will be extended by the amount specified here.

Type:

integer

Default:

5

Version Added:

2.10

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: win_async_startup_timeout

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_WIN_ASYNC_STARTUP_TIMEOUT

Variables:

name:: ansible_win_async_startup_timeout

WORKER_SHUTDOWN_POLL_COUNT

Description:

The maximum number of times to check Task Queue Manager worker processes to verify they have exited cleanly. After this limit is reached any worker processes still running will be terminated. This is for internal use only.

Type:

integer

Default:

0

Version Added:

2.10

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_WORKER_SHUTDOWN_POLL_COUNT

WORKER_SHUTDOWN_POLL_DELAY

Description:

The number of seconds to sleep between polling loops when checking Task Queue Manager worker processes to verify they have exited cleanly. This is for internal use only.

Type:

float

Default:

0.1

Version Added:

2.10

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_WORKER_SHUTDOWN_POLL_DELAY

YAML_FILENAME_EXTENSIONS

Description:

Check all of these extensions when looking for ‘variable’ files which should be YAML or JSON or vaulted versions of these. This affects vars_files, include_vars, inventory and vars plugins among others.

Type:

list

Default:

['.yml', '.yaml', '.json']

Ini:

Section:: [defaults]
Key:: yaml_valid_extensions

Environment:

Variable:: ANSIBLE_YAML_FILENAME_EXT

Environment Variables

Other environment variables to configure plugins in collections can be found in Index of all Collection Environment Variables.

ANSIBLE_CONFIG: Override the default ansible config file

ANSIBLE_HOME

The default root path for Ansible config files on the controller.

Ansible Configuration Settings

The configuration file

Generating a sample ansible.cfg file

Avoiding security risks with ansible.cfg in the current directory

Relative paths for configuration

Common Options

ACTION_WARNINGS

AGNOSTIC_BECOME_PROMPT

ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH

ANSIBLE_COW_ACCEPTLIST

ANSIBLE_COW_PATH

ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION

ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR

ANSIBLE_HOME

ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR

ANSIBLE_NOCOWS

ANSIBLE_PIPELINING

ANY_ERRORS_FATAL

BECOME_ALLOW_SAME_USER

BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE

BECOME_PLUGIN_PATH

CACHE_PLUGIN

CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION

CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT

CALLBACKS_ENABLED

COLLECTIONS_ON_ANSIBLE_VERSION_MISMATCH

COLLECTIONS_PATHS

COLLECTIONS_SCAN_SYS_PATH

COLOR_CHANGED

COLOR_CONSOLE_PROMPT

COLOR_DEBUG

COLOR_DEPRECATE

COLOR_DIFF_ADD

COLOR_DIFF_LINES

COLOR_DIFF_REMOVE

COLOR_ERROR

COLOR_HIGHLIGHT

COLOR_OK

COLOR_SKIP

COLOR_UNREACHABLE

COLOR_VERBOSE

COLOR_WARN

CONNECTION_FACTS_MODULES

CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE

COVERAGE_REMOTE_OUTPUT

COVERAGE_REMOTE_PATHS

DEFAULT_ACTION_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_ALLOW_UNSAFE_LOOKUPS

DEFAULT_ASK_PASS

DEFAULT_ASK_VAULT_PASS

DEFAULT_BECOME

DEFAULT_BECOME_ASK_PASS

DEFAULT_BECOME_EXE

DEFAULT_BECOME_FLAGS

DEFAULT_BECOME_METHOD

DEFAULT_BECOME_USER

DEFAULT_CACHE_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_CALLBACK_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_CLICONF_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_CONNECTION_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_DEBUG

DEFAULT_EXECUTABLE

DEFAULT_FACT_PATH

DEFAULT_FILTER_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_FORCE_HANDLERS

DEFAULT_FORKS

DEFAULT_GATHER_SUBSET

DEFAULT_GATHER_TIMEOUT

DEFAULT_GATHERING

DEFAULT_HASH_BEHAVIOUR

DEFAULT_HOST_LIST

DEFAULT_HTTPAPI_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_INTERNAL_POLL_INTERVAL

DEFAULT_INVENTORY_PLUGIN_PATH

DEFAULT_JINJA2_EXTENSIONS

DEFAULT_JINJA2_NATIVE

DEFAULT_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES

DEFAULT_LIBVIRT_LXC_NOSECLABEL

DEFAULT_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

Generating a sample `ansible.cfg` file

Avoiding security risks with `ansible.cfg` in the current directory