ansible.builtin.package module – Generic OS package manager

Note

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

Synopsis

  • This modules manages packages on a target without specifying a package manager module (like ansible.builtin.yum, ansible.builtin.apt, …). It is convenient to use in an heterogeneous environment of machines without having to create a specific task for each package manager. package calls behind the module for the package manager used by the operating system discovered by the module ansible.builtin.setup. If setup was not yet run, package will run it.

  • This module acts as a proxy to the underlying package manager module. While all arguments will be passed to the underlying module, not all modules support the same arguments. This documentation only covers the minimum intersection of module arguments that all packaging modules support.

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

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • Whatever is required for the package plugins specific for each system.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

name

string / required

Package name, or package specifier with version.

Syntax varies with package manager. For example name-1.0 or name=1.0.

Package names also vary with package manager; this module will not “translate” them per distro. For example libyaml-dev, libyaml-devel.

state

string / required

Whether to install (present), or remove (absent) a package.

You can use other states like latest ONLY if they are supported by the underlying package module(s) executed.

use

string

The required package manager module to use (yum, apt, and so on). The default ‘auto’ will use existing facts or try to autodetect it.

You should only use this field if the automatic selection is not working for some reason.

Default: "auto"

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

action

Support: full

Indicates this has a corresponding action plugin so some parts of the options can be executed on the controller

async

Support: full

Supports being used with the async keyword

bypass_host_loop

Support: none

Forces a ‘global’ task that does not execute per host, this bypasses per host templating and serial, throttle and other loop considerations

Conditionals will work as if run_once is being used, variables used will be from the first available host

This action will not work normally outside of lockstep strategies

check_mode

Support: N/A

support depends on the underlying plugin invoked

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target

diff_mode

Support: N/A

support depends on the underlying plugin invoked

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform

Platforms: all

The support depends on the availability for the specific plugin for each platform and if fact gathering is able to detect it

Target OS/families that can be operated against

Notes

Note

  • While package abstracts package managers to ease dealing with multiple distributions, package name often differs for the same software.

Examples

- name: Install ntpdate
  ansible.builtin.package:
    name: ntpdate
    state: present

# This uses a variable as this changes per distribution.
- name: Remove the apache package
  ansible.builtin.package:
    name: "{{ apache }}"
    state: absent

- name: Install the latest version of Apache and MariaDB
  ansible.builtin.package:
    name:
      - httpd
      - mariadb-server
    state: latest

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team