Note
This module is part of ansible-base and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name shell even without specifying the collections: keyword. Despite that, we recommend you use the FQCN for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.
New in version 0.2: of ansible.builtin
- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- See Also
- Examples
- Return Values
Synopsis
- The
shellmodule takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments. - Either a free form command or
cmdparameter is required, see the examples. - It is almost exactly like the ansible.builtin.command module but runs the command through a shell (
/bin/sh) on the remote node. - For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_shell module instead.
Note
This module has a corresponding action plugin.
Parameters
| Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| chdir path added in 0.6 of ansible.builtin | Change into this directory before running the command. | |
| cmd string | The command to run followed by optional arguments. | |
| creates path | A filename, when it already exists, this step will not be run. | |
| executable path added in 0.9 of ansible.builtin | Change the shell used to execute the command. This expects an absolute path to the executable. | |
| free_form string | The shell module takes a free form command to run, as a string. There is no actual parameter named 'free form'. See the examples on how to use this module. | |
| removes path added in 0.8 of ansible.builtin | A filename, when it does not exist, this step will not be run. | |
| stdin string added in 2.4 of ansible.builtin | Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value. | |
| stdin_add_newline boolean added in 2.8 of ansible.builtin |
| Whether to append a newline to stdin data. |
| warn boolean added in 1.8 of ansible.builtin |
| Whether to enable task warnings. |
Notes
Note
- If you want to execute a command securely and predictably, it may be better to use the ansible.builtin.command module instead. Best practices when writing playbooks will follow the trend of using ansible.builtin.command unless the ansible.builtin.shell module is explicitly required. When running ad-hoc commands, use your best judgement.
- Check mode is supported when passing
createsorremoves. If running in check mode and either of these are specified, the module will check for the existence of the file and report the correct changed status. If these are not supplied, the task will be skipped. - To sanitize any variables passed to the shell module, you should use
{{ var | quote }}instead of just{{ var }}to make sure they do not include evil things like semicolons. - An alternative to using inline shell scripts with this module is to use the ansible.builtin.script module possibly together with the ansible.builtin.template module.
- For rebooting systems, use the ansible.builtin.reboot or ansible.windows.win_reboot module.
See Also
See also
- ansible.builtin.command
-
The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.command module.
- ansible.builtin.raw
-
The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.raw module.
- ansible.builtin.script
-
The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.script module.
- ansible.windows.win_shell
-
The official documentation on the ansible.windows.win_shell module.
Examples
- name: Execute the command in remote shell; stdout goes to the specified file on the remote ansible.builtin.shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt - name: Change the working directory to somedir/ before executing the command ansible.builtin.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 ansible.builtin.shell: somescript.sh >> somelog.txt args: chdir: somedir/ creates: somelog.txt # You can also use the 'cmd' parameter instead of free form format. - name: This command will change the working directory to somedir/ ansible.builtin.shell: cmd: ls -l | grep log chdir: somedir/ - 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) ansible.builtin.shell: cat < /tmp/*txt args: executable: /bin/bash - name: Run a command using a templated variable (always use quote filter to avoid injection) ansible.builtin.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 ansible.builtin.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 # Disabling warnings - name: Using curl to connect to a host via SOCKS proxy (unsupported in uri). Ordinarily this would throw a warning ansible.builtin.shell: curl --socks5 localhost:9000 http://www.ansible.com args: warn: no
Return Values
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 integer | 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 |
| stderr_lines list / elements=string | always | The command standard error split in lines. Sample: [{"u'ls cannot access foo": "No such file or directory'"}, "u'ls …'"] |
| stdout string | always | The command standard output. Sample: Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master … |
| stdout_lines list / elements=string | always | The command standard output split in lines. Sample: ["u'Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master …'"] |
Authors
- Ansible Core Team
- Michael DeHaan
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