ansible/docs/man/man5/ansible-playbook.5.asciidoc

ansible-modules(5)
=================
:doctype:manpage
:man source: Ansible-playbook
:man version: 0.0.1
:man manual: System administration commands


NAME
----
ansible-playbook - format and function of an ansible playbook file


DESCRIPTION
-----------

Ansible ships with 'ansible-playbook', a tool for running playbooks.
Playbooks can represent frequent tasks, desired system configurations,
or deployment processes.


FORMAT
------

Playbooks are written in YAML.


EXAMPLE
-------

see 

https://github.com/mpdehaan/ansible/blob/master/examples/playbook.yml

https://github.com/mpdehaan/ansible/blob/master/examples/base.yml

https://github.com/mpdehaan/ansible/blob/master/examples/handlers.yml

WHAT THE EXAMPLE MEANS
-----------------------

Here's what playbook.yml (above) will do.

The first pattern will select all hosts.  The patterns are the same
as supported by /usr/bin/ansible.

First, it will run all the modules specified in base.yml.  Includes can
be used to implement classes of things, and if you wanted, a playbook
could consist of nothing but include files.  This is an example of an
include.

After processing base.yml, on each host we'll write for 
a JSON file into /etc/ansible/setup on each remote system with the 
values max_clients and http_port.

Next, we'll use a Jinja2 template locally residing at
/srv/templates/httpd.j2 to write the Apache config file on each host, 
using the previous values in that setup file.

Next, We'll ensure that apache is running if stopped.

The template task set up a notifier, which means if the configuration
file actually changed, we have a named handler, in this case, 'restart apache'
to run.  In this case, all the notifiers come from handlers.yml, though it's
also ok to express handlers directly in the main yaml file too.  Using
the include promotes reuse.

What does the handler say?  If and only if the config file changed, note that we need to restart
apache at the end of the run, otherwise, don't bother because we
already know it is running.


HIGH LEVEL EXPLANATION
----------------------

Playbooks are executed top down and can contain multiple references to
patterns.  For instance, a playbook could do something to all
webservers, then do something to all database servers, then do
something different to all webservers again.

For each pattern, the tasks in the 'tasks' list are executed in order
for all hosts in the host file matching the pattern.

For each task, a name/action pair describes what the task is and what
ansible module to use to accomplish the task, along with any
arguments.   Additional fields like 'comment:' can be added and will
be ignored, so feel free to take notes in the file.

Most modules accept key=value format arguments.

Handlers are like tasks, but are conditionally executed.  If a module
reports a 'change', it can notify one or more handler by name.  If
notified, it will run only for hosts that changed.


ERROR HANDLING
--------------

If a host has a failure, the host will be ignored for the remainder
of the playbook execution.


AUTHOR
------

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan. See the AUTHORS file
for a complete list of contributors.


SEE ALSO
--------

*ansible*(1)

*ansible-playbook*(5) - pending

Ansible home page: <https://github.com/mpdehaan/ansible/>