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

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, Jeremy Kendall’s blog post 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
Ini Key: action_warnings
Environment: 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
Ini Key: agnostic_become_prompt
Environment: ANSIBLE_AGNOSTIC_BECOME_PROMPT

ALLOW_WORLD_READABLE_TMPFILES¶

Description: This makes the temporary files created on the machine to be world readable and will issue a warning instead of failing the task. It is useful when becoming an unprivileged user.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Version Added: 2.1
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: allow_world_readable_tmpfiles

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
Ini Key: ansible_connection_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH

ANSIBLE_COW_PATH¶

Description: Specify a custom cowsay path or swap in your cowsay implementation of choice
Type: string
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: cowpath
Environment: 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
Ini Key: cow_selection
Environment: ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION

ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST¶

Description: White 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
Ini Key: cow_whitelist
Environment: ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST

ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR¶

Description: This options forces color mode even when running without a TTY or the “nocolor” setting is True.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: force_color
Environment: ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR

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
Ini Key: nocolor
Environment: ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR

ANSIBLE_NOCOWS¶

Description: If you have cowsay installed but want to avoid the ‘cows’ (why????), use this.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: nocows
Environment: ANSIBLE_NOCOWS

ANSIBLE_PIPELINING¶

Description: 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. This 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 options is disabled if ANSIBLE_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES is enabled.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: connection
Ini Key: pipelining
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: pipelining
Environment: ANSIBLE_PIPELINING
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_PIPELINING

ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS¶

Description: If set, this will override the Ansible default ssh arguments. In particular, users may wish to raise the ControlPersist time to encourage performance. A value of 30 minutes may be appropriate. Be aware that if -o ControlPath is set in ssh_args, the control path setting is not used.
Default: -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: ssh_args
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_ARGS

ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH¶

Description: This is the location to save ssh’s ControlPath sockets, it uses ssh’s variable substitution. Since 2.3, if null, ansible will generate a unique hash. Use %(directory)s to indicate where to use the control dir path setting. Before 2.3 it defaulted to control_path=%(directory)s/ansible-ssh-%%h-%%p-%%r. Be aware that this setting is ignored if -o ControlPath is set in ssh args.
Default: None
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: control_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH

ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH_DIR¶

Description: This sets the directory to use for ssh control path if the control path setting is null. Also, provides the %(directory)s variable for the control path setting.
Default: ~/.ansible/cp
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: control_path_dir
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH_DIR

ANSIBLE_SSH_EXECUTABLE¶

Description: This defines the location of the ssh binary. It defaults to ssh which will use the first ssh binary available in $PATH. This option is usually not required, it might be useful when access to system ssh is restricted, or when using ssh wrappers to connect to remote hosts.
Default: ssh
Version Added: 2.2
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: ssh_executable
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_EXECUTABLE

ANSIBLE_SSH_RETRIES¶

Description: Number of attempts to establish a connection before we give up and report the host as ‘UNREACHABLE’
Type: integer
Default: 0
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: retries
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_RETRIES

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
Ini Key: any_errors_fatal
Environment: 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.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: privilege_escalation
Ini Key: become_allow_same_user
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME_ALLOW_SAME_USER

BECOME_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Become Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/become:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/become
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: become_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME_PLUGINS

CACHE_PLUGIN¶

Description: Chooses which cache plugin to use, the default ‘memory’ is ephimeral.
Default: memory
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: fact_caching
Environment: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN

CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION¶

Description: Defines connection or path information for the cache plugin
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: fact_caching_connection
Environment: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION

CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX¶

Description: Prefix to use for cache plugin files/tables
Default: ansible_facts
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: fact_caching_prefix
Environment: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT¶

Description: Expiration timeout for the cache plugin data
Type: integer
Default: 86400
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: fact_caching_timeout
Environment: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT

COLLECTIONS_PATHS¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for collections content.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: collections_paths
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATHS

COLOR_CHANGED¶

Description: Defines the color to use on ‘Changed’ task status
Default: yellow
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: changed
Environment: 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
Ini Key: console_prompt
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_CONSOLE_PROMPT

COLOR_DEBUG¶

Description: Defines the color to use when emitting debug messages
Default: dark gray
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: debug
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DEBUG

COLOR_DEPRECATE¶

Description: Defines the color to use when emitting deprecation messages
Default: purple
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: deprecate
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DEPRECATE

COLOR_DIFF_ADD¶

Description: Defines the color to use when showing added lines in diffs
Default: green
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: diff_add
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_ADD

COLOR_DIFF_LINES¶

Description: Defines the color to use when showing diffs
Default: cyan
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: diff_lines
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_LINES

COLOR_DIFF_REMOVE¶

Description: Defines the color to use when showing removed lines in diffs
Default: red
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: diff_remove
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_DIFF_REMOVE

COLOR_ERROR¶

Description: Defines the color to use when emitting error messages
Default: red
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: error
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_ERROR

COLOR_HIGHLIGHT¶

Description: Defines the color to use for highlighting
Default: white
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: highlight
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT

COLOR_OK¶

Description: Defines the color to use when showing ‘OK’ task status
Default: green
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: ok
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_OK

COLOR_SKIP¶

Description: Defines the color to use when showing ‘Skipped’ task status
Default: cyan
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: skip
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_SKIP

COLOR_UNREACHABLE¶

Description: Defines the color to use on ‘Unreachable’ status
Default: bright red
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: unreachable
Environment: 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
Ini Key: verbose
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_VERBOSE

COLOR_WARN¶

Description: Defines the color to use when emitting warning messages
Default: bright purple
Ini Section: colors
Ini Key: warn
Environment: ANSIBLE_COLOR_WARN

COMMAND_WARNINGS¶

Description: By default Ansible will issue a warning when the shell or command module is used and the command appears to be similar to an existing Ansible module. These warnings can be silenced by adjusting this setting to False. You can also control this at the task level with the module option warn.
Type: boolean
Default: True
Version Added: 1.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: command_warnings
Environment: ANSIBLE_COMMAND_WARNINGS

CONDITIONAL_BARE_VARS¶

Description: With this setting on (True), running conditional evaluation ‘var’ is treated differently than ‘var.subkey’ as the first is evaluated directly while the second goes through the Jinja2 parser. But ‘false’ strings in ‘var’ get evaluated as booleans. With this setting off they both evaluate the same but in cases in which ‘var’ was ‘false’ (a string) it won’t get evaluated as a boolean anymore. Currently this setting defaults to ‘True’ but will soon change to ‘False’ and the setting itself will be removed in the future. Expect the default to change in version 2.10 and that this setting eventually will be deprecated after 2.12
Type: boolean
Default: True
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: conditional_bare_variables
Environment: ANSIBLE_CONDITIONAL_BARE_VARS

CONNECTION_FACTS_MODULES¶

Description: Which modules to run during a play’s fact gathering stage based on connection
Type: dict
Default: {‘eos’: ‘eos_facts’, ‘frr’: ‘frr_facts’, ‘ios’: ‘ios_facts’, ‘iosxr’: ‘iosxr_facts’, ‘junos’: ‘junos_facts’, ‘nxos’: ‘nxos_facts’, ‘vyos’: ‘vyos_facts’}
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: connection_facts_modules
Environment: ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_FACTS_MODULES

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
Default
Version Added: 2.9
Environment: _ANSIBLE_COVERAGE_REMOTE_OUTPUT

COVERAGE_REMOTE_WHITELIST¶

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

_ANSIBLE_COVERAGE_REMOTE_WHITELIST

DEFAULT_ACTION_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Action Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/action:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/action
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: action_plugins
Environment: 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 backwards-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
Ini 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 needed to change this setting.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: ask_pass
Environment: 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
Ini Key: ask_vault_pass
Environment: 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
Ini Key: become
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME

DEFAULT_BECOME_ASK_PASS¶

Description: Toggle to prompt for privilege escalation password.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: privilege_escalation
Ini Key: become_ask_pass
Environment: 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
Ini Key: become_exe
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME_EXE

DEFAULT_BECOME_FLAGS¶

Description: Flags to pass to the privilege escalation executable.
Default
Ini Section: privilege_escalation
Ini Key: become_flags
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME_FLAGS

DEFAULT_BECOME_METHOD¶

Description: Privilege escalation method to use when become is enabled.
Default: sudo
Ini Section: privilege_escalation
Ini Key: become_method
Environment: 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
Ini Key: become_user
Environment: ANSIBLE_BECOME_USER

DEFAULT_CACHE_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Cache Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/cache:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/cache
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: cache_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CALLABLE_WHITELIST¶

Description: Whitelist of callable methods to be made available to template evaluation
Type: list
Default: []
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: callable_whitelist
Environment: ANSIBLE_CALLABLE_WHITELIST

DEFAULT_CALLBACK_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Callback Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/callback:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/callback
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: callback_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CALLBACK_WHITELIST¶

Description: List of whitelisted callbacks, not all callbacks need whitelisting, but many of those shipped with Ansible do as we don’t want them activated by default.
Type: list
Default: []
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: callback_whitelist
Environment: ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_WHITELIST

DEFAULT_CLICONF_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Cliconf Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/cliconf:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/cliconf
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: cliconf_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_CLICONF_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_CONNECTION_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Connection Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/connection:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/connection
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: connection_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: debug
Environment: 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
Ini Key: executable
Environment: ANSIBLE_EXECUTABLE

DEFAULT_FACT_PATH¶

Description: This option allows you to globally configure a custom path for ‘local_facts’ for the implied M(setup) task when using fact gathering. If not set, it will fallback to the default from the M(setup) module: /etc/ansible/facts.d. This does not affect user defined tasks that use the M(setup) module.
Type: path
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: fact_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_FACT_PATH

DEFAULT_FILTER_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Jinja2 Filter Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/filter:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/filter
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: filter_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: force_handlers
Environment: 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
Ini Key: forks
Environment: ANSIBLE_FORKS

DEFAULT_GATHER_SUBSET¶

Description: Set the gather_subset option for the M(setup) task in the implicit fact gathering. See the module documentation for specifics. It does not apply to user defined M(setup) tasks.
Type: list
Default: [‘all’]
Version Added: 2.1
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: gather_subset
Environment: ANSIBLE_GATHER_SUBSET

DEFAULT_GATHER_TIMEOUT¶

Description: Set the timeout in seconds for the implicit fact gathering. It does not apply to user defined M(setup) tasks.
Type: integer
Default: 10
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: gather_timeout
Environment: ANSIBLE_GATHER_TIMEOUT

DEFAULT_GATHERING¶

Description: This setting controls the default policy of fact gathering (facts discovered about remote systems). When ‘implicit’ (the default), the cache plugin will be ignored and facts will be gathered per play unless ‘gather_facts: False’ is set. When ‘explicit’ the inverse is true, facts will not be gathered unless directly requested in the play. The ‘smart’ value means 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 playbook run. This option can be useful for those wishing to save fact gathering time. Both ‘smart’ and ‘explicit’ will use the cache plugin.
Default: implicit
Version Added: 1.6
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: gathering
Environment: ANSIBLE_GATHERING

DEFAULT_HANDLER_INCLUDES_STATIC¶

Description: Since 2.0 M(include) can be ‘dynamic’, this setting (if True) forces that if the include appears in a handlers section to be ‘static’.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: handler_includes_static
Environment: ANSIBLE_HANDLER_INCLUDES_STATIC
Deprecated in: 2.12
Deprecated detail: include itself is deprecated and this setting will not matter in the future
Deprecated alternatives: none as its already built into the decision between include_tasks and import_tasks

DEFAULT_HASH_BEHAVIOUR¶

Description: This setting controls how variables merge in Ansible. By default Ansible will override variables in specific precedence orders, as described in Variables. When a variable of higher precedence wins, it will replace the other value. Some users prefer that variables that are hashes (aka ‘dictionaries’ in Python terms) are merged. This setting is called ‘merge’. This is not the default behavior and it does not affect variables whose values are scalars (integers, strings) or arrays. We generally recommend not using this setting unless you think you have an absolute need for it, and playbooks in the official examples repos do not use this setting In version 2.0 a combine filter was added to allow doing this for a particular variable (described in Filters).
Type: string
Default: replace
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: hash_behaviour
Environment: ANSIBLE_HASH_BEHAVIOUR

DEFAULT_HOST_LIST¶

Description: Comma separated list of Ansible inventory sources
Type: pathlist
Default: /etc/ansible/hosts
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: inventory
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY

DEFAULT_HTTPAPI_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for HttpApi Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/httpapi:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/httpapi
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: httpapi_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: internal_poll_interval

DEFAULT_INVENTORY_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Inventory Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/inventory:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/inventory
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: inventory_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: jinja2_extensions
Environment: ANSIBLE_JINJA2_EXTENSIONS

DEFAULT_JINJA2_NATIVE¶

Description: This option preserves variable types during template operations. This requires Jinja2 >= 2.10.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Version Added: 2.7
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: jinja2_native
Environment: 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
Ini Key: keep_remote_files
Environment: 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
Ini Key: libvirt_lxc_noseclabel
Environment: ANSIBLE_LIBVIRT_LXC_NOSECLABEL
Environment: 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
Ini Key: bin_ansible_callbacks
Environment: ANSIBLE_LOAD_CALLBACK_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_LOCAL_TMP¶

Description: Temporary directory for Ansible to use on the controller.
Type: tmppath
Default: ~/.ansible/tmp
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: local_tmp
Environment: ANSIBLE_LOCAL_TEMP

DEFAULT_LOG_FILTER¶

Description: List of logger names to filter out of the log file
Type: list
Default: []
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: log_filter
Environment: 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
Ini Key: log_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_LOG_PATH

DEFAULT_LOOKUP_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Lookup Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/lookup:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/lookup
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: lookup_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_LOOKUP_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_MANAGED_STR¶

Description: Sets the macro for the ‘ansible_managed’ variable available for M(template) and M(win_template) modules. This is only relevant for those two modules.
Default: Ansible managed
Ini Section: defaults
Ini 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
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: module_args
Environment: ANSIBLE_MODULE_ARGS

DEFAULT_MODULE_COMPRESSION¶

Description: Compression scheme to use when transferring Python modules to the target.
Default: ZIP_DEFLATED
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: 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
Ini Key: module_name

DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Modules.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: library
Environment: 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/plugins/module_utils:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/module_utils
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: module_utils
Environment: ANSIBLE_MODULE_UTILS

DEFAULT_NETCONF_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Netconf Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/netconf:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/netconf
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: netconf_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: no_log
Environment: ANSIBLE_NO_LOG

DEFAULT_NO_TARGET_SYSLOG¶

Description: Toggle Ansible logging to syslog on the target when it executes tasks.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: no_target_syslog
Environment: ANSIBLE_NO_TARGET_SYSLOG

DEFAULT_NULL_REPRESENTATION¶

Description: What templating should return as a ‘null’ value. When not set it will let Jinja2 decide.
Type: none
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: null_representation
Environment: 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
Ini Key: poll_interval
Environment: 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
Ini Key: private_key_file
Environment: ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

DEFAULT_PRIVATE_ROLE_VARS¶

Description: Makes role variables inaccessible from other roles. This was introduced as a way to reset role variables to default values if a role is used more than once in a playbook.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: private_role_vars
Environment: 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
Ini Key: remote_port
Environment: 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.
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: remote_user
Environment: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER

DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Roles.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/roles:/usr/share/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: roles_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH

DEFAULT_SCP_IF_SSH¶

Description: Preferred method to use when transferring files over ssh. When set to smart, Ansible will try them until one succeeds or they all fail. If set to True, it will force ‘scp’, if False it will use ‘sftp’.
Default: smart
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: scp_if_ssh
Environment: ANSIBLE_SCP_IF_SSH

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
Ini Key: special_context_filesystems
Environment: ANSIBLE_SELINUX_SPECIAL_FS

DEFAULT_SFTP_BATCH_MODE¶

Type: boolean
Default: True
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: sftp_batch_mode
Environment: ANSIBLE_SFTP_BATCH_MODE

DEFAULT_SQUASH_ACTIONS¶

Description: Ansible can optimise actions that call modules that support list parameters when using with_ looping. Instead of calling the module once for each item, the module is called once with the full list. The default value for this setting is only for certain package managers, but it can be used for any module. Currently, this is only supported for modules that have a name or pkg parameter, and only when the item is the only thing being passed to the parameter.
Type: list
Default: apk, apt, dnf, homebrew, openbsd_pkg, pacman, pip, pkgng, yum, zypper
Version Added: 2.0
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: squash_actions
Environment: ANSIBLE_SQUASH_ACTIONS
Deprecated in: 2.11
Deprecated detail: Loop squashing is deprecated and this configuration will no longer be used
Deprecated alternatives: a list directly with the module argument

DEFAULT_SSH_TRANSFER_METHOD¶

Description: unused?
Default: None
Ini Section: ssh_connection
Ini Key: transfer_method
Environment: ANSIBLE_SSH_TRANSFER_METHOD

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.
Default: default
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: stdout_callback
Environment: ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK

DEFAULT_STRATEGY¶

Description: Set the default strategy used for plays.
Default: linear
Version Added: 2.3
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: strategy
Environment: ANSIBLE_STRATEGY

DEFAULT_STRATEGY_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Strategy Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/strategy:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/strategy
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: strategy_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_STRATEGY_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_SU¶

Description: Toggle the use of “su” for tasks.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: su
Environment: ANSIBLE_SU

DEFAULT_SYSLOG_FACILITY¶

Description: Syslog facility to use when Ansible logs to the remote target
Default: LOG_USER
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: syslog_facility
Environment: ANSIBLE_SYSLOG_FACILITY

DEFAULT_TASK_INCLUDES_STATIC¶

Description: The include tasks can be static or dynamic, this toggles the default expected behaviour if autodetection fails and it is not explicitly set in task.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Version Added: 2.1
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: task_includes_static
Environment: ANSIBLE_TASK_INCLUDES_STATIC
Deprecated in: 2.12
Deprecated detail: include itself is deprecated and this setting will not matter in the future
Deprecated alternatives: None, as its already built into the decision between include_tasks and import_tasks

DEFAULT_TERMINAL_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Terminal Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/terminal:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/terminal
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: terminal_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_TERMINAL_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_TEST_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Jinja2 Test Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/test:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/test
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: test_plugins
Environment: ANSIBLE_TEST_PLUGINS

DEFAULT_TIMEOUT¶

Description: This is the default timeout for connection plugins to use.
Type: integer
Default: 10
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: timeout
Environment: ANSIBLE_TIMEOUT

DEFAULT_TRANSPORT¶

Description: Default connection plugin to use, the ‘smart’ option will toggle between ‘ssh’ and ‘paramiko’ depending on controller OS and ssh versions
Default: smart
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: transport
Environment: 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
Ini Key: error_on_undefined_vars
Environment: 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/plugins/vars:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/vars
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: vars_plugins
Environment: 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.
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: vault_encrypt_identity
Environment: 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
Ini Key: vault_id_match
Environment: 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
Ini Key: vault_identity
Environment: 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
Ini Key: vault_identity_list
Environment: ANSIBLE_VAULT_IDENTITY_LIST

DEFAULT_VAULT_PASSWORD_FILE¶

Description: The vault password file to use. Equivalent to –vault-password-file or –vault-id
Type: path
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: vault_password_file
Environment: 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
Ini Key: verbosity
Environment: ANSIBLE_VERBOSITY

DEPRECATION_WARNINGS¶

Description: Toggle to control the showing of deprecation warnings
Type: boolean
Default: True
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: deprecation_warnings
Environment: ANSIBLE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS

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
Ini Key: always
Environment: 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
Ini Key: context
Environment: 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
Ini Key: display_args_to_stdout
Environment: 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
Ini Key: display_skipped_hosts
Environment: ANSIBLE_DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS
Environment: DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS

DOC_FRAGMENT_PLUGIN_PATH¶

Description: Colon separated paths in which Ansible will search for Documentation Fragments Plugins.
Type: pathspec
Default: ~/.ansible/plugins/doc_fragments:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/doc_fragments
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: doc_fragment_plugins
Environment: 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/
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini 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
Version Added: 2.9
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: duplicate_dict_key
Environment: ANSIBLE_DUPLICATE_YAML_DICT_KEY

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
Ini Key: enable_task_debugger
Environment: 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
Ini Key: error_on_missing_handler
Environment: 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.
Type: list
Default: [‘smart’]
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: facts_modules
Environment: ANSIBLE_FACTS_MODULES

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
Default: False
Ini Section: galaxy
Ini Key: ignore_certs
Environment: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_IGNORE

GALAXY_ROLE_SKELETON¶

Description: Role or collection skeleton directory to use as a template for the init action in ansible-galaxy, same as --role-skeleton.
Type: path
Default: None
Ini Section: galaxy
Ini Key: role_skeleton
Environment: 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
Ini Key: role_skeleton_ignore
Environment: 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
Ini Key: server
Environment: 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
Default
Version Added: 2.9
Ini Section: galaxy
Ini Key: server_list
Environment: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_LIST

GALAXY_TOKEN¶

Description: GitHub personal access token
Default: None
Ini Section: galaxy
Ini Key: token
Environment: ANSIBLE_GALAXY_TOKEN

GALAXY_TOKEN_PATH¶

Description: Local path to galaxy access token file
Type: path
Default: ~/.ansible/galaxy_token
Version Added: 2.9
Ini Section: galaxy
Ini Key: token_path
Environment: 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
Ini Key: host_key_checking
Environment: 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
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: host_pattern_mismatch
Environment: 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
Ini Key: inject_facts_as_vars
Environment: 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, auto_silent, and auto_legacy (the default). 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. The default 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 (and issue a warning that the default behavior will change to that of auto in a future Ansible release.
Default: auto_legacy
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: interpreter_python
Environment: ANSIBLE_PYTHON_INTERPRETER

INTERPRETER_PYTHON_DISTRO_MAP¶

Default: {‘centos’: {‘6’: ‘/usr/bin/python’, ‘8’: ‘/usr/libexec/platform-python’}, ‘fedora’: {‘23’: ‘/usr/bin/python3’}, ‘redhat’: {‘6’: ‘/usr/bin/python’, ‘8’: ‘/usr/libexec/platform-python’}, ‘rhel’: {‘6’: ‘/usr/bin/python’, ‘8’: ‘/usr/libexec/platform-python’}, ‘ubuntu’: {‘14’: ‘/usr/bin/python’, ‘16’: ‘/usr/bin/python3’}}
Version Added: 2.8

INTERPRETER_PYTHON_FALLBACK¶

Default: [‘/usr/bin/python’, ‘python3.7’, ‘python3.6’, ‘python3.5’, ‘python2.7’, ‘python2.6’, ‘/usr/libexec/platform-python’, ‘/usr/bin/python3’, ‘python’]
Version Added: 2.8

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
Ini Key: invalid_task_attribute_failed
Environment: 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
Ini Key: any_unparsed_is_failed
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_ANY_UNPARSED_IS_FAILED

INVENTORY_CACHE_ENABLED¶

Description: Toggle to turn on inventory caching
Type: bool
Default: False
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: cache
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN¶

Description: The plugin for caching inventory. If INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN is not provided CACHE_PLUGIN can be used instead.
Default
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: cache_plugin
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION¶

Description: The inventory cache connection. If INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION is not provided CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION can be used instead.
Default
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: cache_connection
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_CONNECTION

INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX¶

Description: The table prefix for the cache plugin. If INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX is not provided CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX can be used instead.
Default: ansible_facts
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: cache_prefix
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_CACHE_PLUGIN_PREFIX

INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT¶

Description: Expiration timeout for the inventory cache plugin data. If INVENTORY_CACHE_TIMEOUT is not provided CACHE_TIMEOUT can be used instead.
Default: 3600
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: cache_timeout
Environment: 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
Ini Key: enable_plugins
Environment: 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
Ini Key: export
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_EXPORT

INVENTORY_IGNORE_EXTS¶

Description: List of extensions to ignore when using a directory as an inventory source
Type: list
Default: {{(BLACKLIST_EXTS + ( ‘.orig’, ‘.ini’, ‘.cfg’, ‘.retry’))}}
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: inventory_ignore_extensions
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: ignore_extensions
Environment: 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
Ini Key: inventory_ignore_patterns
Ini Section: inventory
Ini Key: ignore_patterns
Environment: 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
Ini Key: unparsed_is_failed
Environment: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_UNPARSED_FAILED

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
Ini Key: localhost_warning
Environment: 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
Ini Key: max_diff_size
Environment: ANSIBLE_MAX_DIFF_SIZE

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
Ini Key: ssh_config
Environment: 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’]
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: network_group_modules
Environment: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_GROUP_MODULES
Environment: NETWORK_GROUP_MODULES

OLD_PLUGIN_CACHE_CLEARING¶

Description: Previouslly 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 prevoius plays would be unexpectedly ‘sticky’. This setting allows to return to that behaviour.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: old_plugin_cache_clear
Environment: ANSIBLE_OLD_PLUGIN_CACHE_CLEAR

PARAMIKO_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD¶

Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: paramiko_connection
Ini Key: host_key_auto_add
Environment: ANSIBLE_PARAMIKO_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD

PARAMIKO_LOOK_FOR_KEYS¶

Type: boolean
Default: True
Ini Section: paramiko_connection
Ini Key: look_for_keys
Environment: 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
Ini Key: command_timeout
Environment: 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
Ini Key: connect_retry_timeout
Environment: 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
Ini Key: connect_timeout
Environment: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT

PERSISTENT_CONTROL_PATH_DIR¶

Description: Path to socket to be used by the connection persistence system.
Type: path
Default: ~/.ansible/pc
Ini Section: persistent_connection
Ini Key: control_path_dir
Environment: 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
Default
Version Added: 2.9
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: playbook_dir
Environment: 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 The top option follows the traditional behaviour of using the top playbook in the chain to find the root directory. The bottom option follows the 2.4.0 behaviour of using the current playbook to find the root directory. The all option examines from the first parent to the current playbook.
Default: top
Version Added: 2.4.1
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: playbook_vars_root
Environment: 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 Plugin Filter Configuration 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: default
Ini Key: plugin_filters_cfg
Ini Section: defaults
Ini 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
Ini Key: python_module_rlimit_nofile
Environment: 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
Ini Key: retry_files_enabled
Environment: 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.
Type: path
Default: None
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: retry_files_save_path
Environment: ANSIBLE_RETRY_FILES_SAVE_PATH

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
Ini Key: show_custom_stats
Environment: 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
Ini Key: string_conversion_action
Environment: ANSIBLE_STRING_CONVERSION_ACTION

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’, ‘ppretty’, ‘json’]
Ini Section: jinja2
Ini Key: dont_type_filters
Environment: 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
Ini Key: system_warnings
Environment: 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
Ini Key: run
Environment: 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
Ini Key: skip
Environment: 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
Ini Key: task_debugger_ignore_errors
Environment: ANSIBLE_TASK_DEBUGGER_IGNORE_ERRORS

TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS¶

Description: Make ansible transform invalid characters in group names supplied by inventory sources. If ‘never’ it will allow for the group name but warn about the issue. When ‘ignore’, it does the same as ‘never’, without issuing a warning. When ‘always’ it will replace any invalid charachters with ‘_’ (underscore) and warn the user When ‘silently’, it does the same as ‘always’, without issuing a warning.
Type: string
Default: never
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: force_valid_group_names
Environment: ANSIBLE_TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS

USE_PERSISTENT_CONNECTIONS¶

Description: Toggles the use of persistence for connections.
Type: boolean
Default: False
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: use_persistent_connections
Environment: ANSIBLE_USE_PERSISTENT_CONNECTIONS

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
Ini Key: precedence
Environment: ANSIBLE_PRECEDENCE

VERBOSE_TO_STDERR¶

Description: Force ‘verbose’ option to use stderr instead of stdout
Type: bool
Default: False
Version Added: 2.8
Ini Section: defaults
Ini Key: verbose_to_stderr
Environment: ANSIBLE_VERBOSE_TO_STDERR

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
Ini Key: yaml_valid_extensions
Environment: ANSIBLE_YAML_FILENAME_EXT

Environment Variables¶

ANSIBLE_CONFIG¶: Override the default ansible config file

ANSIBLE_CONNECTION_PATH¶

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.