ansible-role

Purpose

Execute an Ansible role without having to create the playbook

Syntax

Syntax: ansible-role [-h] [-V] [-b] [-e EXTRA_VARS] [-d] [-v] role host [host ...]

Options and arguments

| Option | Description | Default | | —— | ———– | ——- | | -V, --ansible-verbose | Use Ansible -v option - zero or more occurrences | | -b, --become | Become root on hosts via sudo | | -e EXTRA_VARS, --extra-vars EXTRA_VARS | One or more sets of extra variables to ansible-playbook | | -d, --dry-run | Do not invoke ansible-playbook | | -v | Enable verbose debugging | Debugging is not enabled |

Example

Simple example

$ find . -type f | xargs grep '' -H
./myrole/tasks/main.yml:- name: Task 1
./myrole/tasks/main.yml:  debug:
./myrole/tasks/main.yml:    msg: "This is from Task 1: myvar="
$ ansible-role myrole localhost

PLAY [Run myrole] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [myrole : Task 1] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is from Task 1: myvar=n/a"
}

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

$

Debugging with an extra variable

$ ansible-role -vv -e myvar=foo myrole localhost
2020-08-16 10:39:41,417 INFO /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:26 host: 'localhost'
2020-08-16 10:39:41,418 INFO /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:28 Temporary playbook: '/tmp/tmp0fs5y8ua'
- name: Run myrole
  hosts: localhost
  roles:
  - role: myrole
2020-08-16 10:39:41,419 DEBUG /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:47 ['ansible-playbook', '-e', 'myvar=foo', '/tmp/tmp0fs5y8ua']

PLAY [Run myrole] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [myrole : Task 1] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is from Task 1: myvar=foo"
}

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

$

ansible-playbook debugging

$ ansible-role -VV -vv ~-/myrole localhost
2020-08-16 10:51:18,952 INFO /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:26 host: 'localhost'
2020-08-16 10:51:18,953 INFO /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:28 Temporary playbook: '/tmp/tmpj2jc9mij'
- name: Run /home/mrbruno/tmp/20200816102653672382905/myrole
  hosts: localhost
  roles:
  - role: /home/mrbruno/tmp/20200816102653672382905/myrole
2020-08-16 10:51:18,954 DEBUG /home/mrbruno/bin/ansible-role:47 ['ansible-playbook', '-v', '-v', '/tmp/tmpj2jc9mij']
ansible-playbook 2.5.1
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/home/mrbruno/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 2.7.17 (default, Jul 20 2020, 15:37:01) [GCC 7.5.0]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file

PLAYBOOK: tmpj2jc9mij ****************************************************************************************************************************************************
1 plays in /tmp/tmpj2jc9mij

PLAY [Run /home/mrbruno/tmp/20200816102653672382905/myrole] **************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /tmp/tmpj2jc9mij:1
ok: [localhost]
META: ran handlers

TASK [/home/mrbruno/tmp/20200816102653672382905/myrole : Task 1] *********************************************************************************************************
task path: /media/mrbruno/ExtraDrive1/tmp/20200816102653672382905/myrole/tasks/main.yml:1
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "This is from Task 1: myvar=n/a"
}
META: ran handlers
META: ran handlers

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

$

Notes

• A temporary playbook is created and removed after running ansible-playbook.
• You can use a relative or full path to the role directory which just gets specified in the playbook.