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- shell - Execute commands in nodes.
-
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shell - Execute commands in nodes.
- The
shell
module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments. It is almost exactly like the command module but runs the command through a shell (/bin/sh
) on the remote node.
- For Windows targets, use the win_shell module instead.
Parameter |
Choices/Defaults |
Comments |
chdir
|
|
cd into this directory before running the command
|
creates
|
|
a filename, when it already exists, this step will not be run.
|
executable
|
|
change the shell used to execute the command. Should be an absolute path to the executable.
|
free_form
required |
|
The shell module takes a free form command to run, as a string. There's not an actual option named "free form". See the examples!
|
removes
|
|
a filename, when it does not exist, this step will not be run.
|
stdin
(added in 2.4) |
|
Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value.
|
warn
bool
(added in 1.8) |
|
if command warnings are on in ansible.cfg, do not warn about this particular line if set to no/false.
|
Note
- If you want to execute a command securely and predictably, it may be better to use the command module instead. Best practices when writing playbooks will follow the trend of using command unless the
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 don’t include evil things like semicolons.
- For Windows targets, use the win_shell module instead.
- Rather than using here documents to create multi-line scripts inside playbooks, use the script module instead.
- name: Execute the command in remote shell; stdout goes to the specified file on the remote.
shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt
- name: Change the working directory to somedir/ before executing the command.
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.
shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt
args:
chdir: somedir/
creates: somelog.txt
- 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)
shell: cat < /tmp/*txt
args:
executable: /bin/bash
- name: Run a command using a templated variable (always use quote filter to avoid injection)
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
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
Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:
Key |
Returned |
Description |
cmd
string
|
always |
The command executed by the task
Sample:
rabbitmqctl join_cluster rabbit@master
|
delta
string
|
always |
The command execution delta time
Sample:
0:00:00.325771
|
end
string
|
always |
The command execution end time
Sample:
2016-02-25 09:18:26.755339
|
msg
boolean
|
always |
changed
Sample:
True
|
rc
int
|
always |
The command return code (0 means success)
|
start
string
|
always |
The command execution start time
Sample:
2016-02-25 09:18:26.429568
|
stderr
string
|
always |
The command standard error
Sample:
ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory
|
stdout
string
|
always |
The command standard output
Sample:
Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master ...
|
stdout_lines
list
|
always |
The command standard output split in lines
Sample:
["u'Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master ...'"]
|
This module is flagged as stableinterface which means that the maintainers for this module guarantee that no backward incompatible interface changes will be made.
This module is flagged as core which means that it is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. See Module Maintenance & Support for more info.
For a list of other modules that are also maintained by the Ansible Core Team, see here.
- Ansible Core Team
- Michael DeHaan
Hint
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