ansible.builtin.shell – Execute shell commands on targets

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 shell module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments.
Either a free form command or cmd parameter 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	no yes ←	Whether to append a newline to stdin data.
warn boolean added in 1.8 of ansible.builtin	no yes ←	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 creates or removes. 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 Template:Var instead of just Template: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.

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

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.10/collections/ansible/builtin/shell_module.html

ansible.builtin.shell – Execute shell commands on targets

ansible.builtin.shell – Execute shell commands on targets

Synopsis

Parameters

Notes

See Also

Examples

Return Values

Authors