template – Templates a file out to a remote server
template – Templates a file out to a remote server
Synopsis
- Templates are processed by the Jinja2 templating language (http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/) - documentation on the template formatting can be found in the Template Designer Documentation (http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/templates/).
- Six additional variables can be used in templates:
ansible_managed
(configurable via thedefaults
section ofansible.cfg
) contains a string which can be used to describe the template name, host, modification time of the template file and the owner uid.template_host
contains the node name of the template’s machine.template_uid
is the numeric user id of the owner.template_path
is the path of the template.template_fullpath
is the absolute path of the template.template_run_date
is the date that the template was rendered.
Parameters
Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments |
---|---|---|
attributes - added in 2.3 |
Attributes the file or directory should have. To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system. This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.
| |
backup boolean |
|
Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly. |
block_end_string - added in 2.4 |
Default: "%}" |
The string marking the end of a block. |
block_start_string - added in 2.4 |
Default: "{%" |
The string marking the beginning of a block. |
dest - / required |
Location to render the template to on the remote machine. | |
follow boolean added in 2.4 |
|
This flag indicates that filesystem links in the destination, if they exist, should be followed. Previous to Ansible 2.4, this was hardcoded as |
force boolean |
|
the default is |
group - |
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown. | |
lstrip_blocks boolean added in 2.6 |
|
If this is set to True leading spaces and tabs are stripped from the start of a line to a block. Setting this option to True requires Jinja2 version >=2.7. |
mode - |
Mode the file or directory should be. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like | |
newline_sequence - added in 2.4 |
|
Specify the newline sequence to use for templating files. |
output_encoding - added in 2.7 |
Default: "utf-8" |
Overrides the encoding used to write the template file defined by It defaults to The source template file must always be encoded using |
owner - |
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown. | |
selevel - |
Default: "s0" |
Level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the |
serole - |
Role part of SELinux file context, | |
setype - |
Type part of SELinux file context, | |
seuser - |
User part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to | |
src - / required |
Path of a Jinja2 formatted template on the Ansible controller. This can be a relative or absolute path. | |
trim_blocks boolean added in 2.4 |
|
If this is set to True the first newline after a block is removed (block, not variable tag!). |
unsafe_writes boolean added in 2.2 |
|
By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner. This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn't force Ansible to perform unsafe writes). IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption. |
validate - |
The validation command to run before copying into place. The path to the file to validate is passed in via '%s' which must be present as in the example below. The command is passed securely so shell features like expansion and pipes won't work. | |
variable_end_string - added in 2.4 |
Default: "}}" |
The string marking the end of a print statement. |
variable_start_string - added in 2.4 |
Default: "{{" |
The string marking the beginning of a print statement. |
Notes
Note
- For Windows you can use win_template which uses ‘\r\n’ as
newline_sequence
. - Including a string that uses a date in the template will result in the template being marked ‘changed’ each time
- Since Ansible version 0.9, templates are loaded with
trim_blocks=True
. - Also, you can override jinja2 settings by adding a special header to template file. i.e.
#jinja2:variable_start_string:'[%', variable_end_string:'%]', trim_blocks: False
which changes the variable interpolation markers to [% var %] instead of Template:Var. This is the best way to prevent evaluation of things that look like, but should not be Jinja2. raw/endraw in Jinja2 will not work as you expect because templates in Ansible are recursively evaluated. - You can use the
copy
module with thecontent:
option if you prefer the template inline, as part of the playbook.
Examples
# Example from Ansible Playbooks
- template:
src: /mytemplates/foo.j2
dest: /etc/file.conf
owner: bin
group: wheel
mode: 0644
# The same example, but using symbolic modes equivalent to 0644
- template:
src: /mytemplates/foo.j2
dest: /etc/file.conf
owner: bin
group: wheel
mode: "u=rw,g=r,o=r"
# Create a DOS-style text file from a template
- template:
src: config.ini.j2
dest: /share/windows/config.ini
newline_sequence: '\r\n'
# Copy a new "sudoers" file into place, after passing validation with visudo
- template:
src: /mine/sudoers
dest: /etc/sudoers
validate: '/usr/sbin/visudo -cf %s'
# Update sshd configuration safely, avoid locking yourself out
- template:
src: etc/ssh/sshd_config.j2
dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0600'
validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
backup: yes
Status
- This module is guaranteed to have no backward incompatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]
Red Hat Support
More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.
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/2.7/modules/template_module.html