ansible/docs/man/man1/ansible-vault.1.asciidoc.in

ansible-vault(1)
================
:doctype:      manpage
:man source:   Ansible
:man version:  %VERSION%
:man manual:   System administration commands

NAME
----
ansible-vault - manage encrypted YAML data.


SYNOPSIS
--------
ansible-vault [create|decrypt|edit|encrypt|rekey] [--help] [options] file_name


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

*ansible-vault* can encrypt any structured data file used by Ansible. This can include 
*group_vars/* or *host_vars/* inventory variables, variables loaded by *include_vars* or 
*vars_files*, or variable files passed on the ansible-playbook command line with 
*-e @file.yml* or *-e @file.json*. Role variables and defaults are also included!

Because Ansible tasks, handlers, and so on are also data, these can also be encrypted with 
vault. If you’d like to not betray what variables you are even using, you can go as far to 
keep an individual task file entirely encrypted.


COMMON OPTIONS
--------------

The following options are available to all sub-commands:

*--vault-password-file=*'FILE'::

A file containing the vault password to be used during the encryption/decryption
steps. Be sure to keep this file secured if it is used. If the file is executable,
it will be run and its standard output will be used as the password.

*--new-vault-password-file=*'FILE'::

A file containing the new vault password to be used when rekeying a
file. Be sure to keep this file secured if it is used. If the file
is executable, it will be run and its standard output will be used as
the password.

*-h*, *--help*::

Show a help message related to the given sub-command.

*--debug*::

Enable debugging output for troubleshooting.

CREATE
------

*$ ansible-vault create [options] FILE*

The *create* sub-command is used to initialize a new encrypted file. 

First you will be prompted for a password. The password used with vault currently 
must be the same for all files you wish to use together at the same time.

After providing a password, the tool will launch whatever editor you have defined 
with $EDITOR, and defaults to vim. Once you are done with the editor session, the 
file will be saved as encrypted data.

The default cipher is AES (which is shared-secret based).

EDIT
----

*$ ansible-vault edit [options] FILE*

The *edit* sub-command is used to modify a file which was previously encrypted
using ansible-vault.

This command will decrypt the file to a temporary file and allow you to edit the 
file, saving it back when done and removing the temporary file.

REKEY
-----

*$ ansible-vault rekey [options] FILE_1 [FILE_2, ..., FILE_N]*

The *rekey* command is used to change the password on a vault-encrypted files.
This command can update multiple files at once, and will prompt for both the
old and new passwords before modifying any data.

ENCRYPT
-------

*$ ansible-vault encrypt [options] FILE_1 [FILE_2, ..., FILE_N]*

The *encrypt* sub-command is used to encrypt pre-existing data files. As with the
*rekey* command, you can specify multiple files in one command.

Starting with version 2.0, the *encrypt* command accepts an *--output FILENAME*
option to determine where encrypted output is stored. With this option, input is
read from the (at most one) filename given on the command line; if no input file
is given, input is read from stdin. Either the input or the output file may be
given as '-' for stdin and stdout respectively. If neither input nor output file
is given, the command acts as a filter, reading plaintext from stdin and writing
it to stdout.

Thus any of the following invocations can be used:

*$ ansible-vault encrypt*

*$ ansible-vault encrypt --output OUTFILE*

*$ ansible-vault encrypt INFILE --output OUTFILE*

*$ echo secret|ansible-vault encrypt --output OUTFILE*

Reading from stdin and writing only encrypted output is a good way to prevent
sensitive data from ever hitting disk (either interactively or from a script).

DECRYPT
-------

*$ ansible-vault decrypt [options] FILE_1 [FILE_2, ..., FILE_N]*

The *decrypt* sub-command is used to remove all encryption from data files. The files
will be stored as plain-text YAML once again, so be sure that you do not run this
command on data files with active passwords or other sensitive data. In most cases, 
users will want to use the *edit* sub-command to modify the files securely.

As with *encrypt*, the *decrypt* subcommand also accepts the *--output FILENAME*
option to specify where plaintext output is stored, and stdin/stdout is handled
as described above.

AUTHOR
------

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


COPYRIGHT
---------

Copyright © 2014, Michael DeHaan

Ansible is released under the terms of the GPLv3 License.


SEE ALSO
--------

*ansible*(1), *ansible-pull*(1), *ansible-doc*(1)

Extensive documentation is available in the documentation site:
<http://docs.ansible.com>. IRC and mailing list info can be found
in file CONTRIBUTING.md, available in: <https://github.com/ansible/ansible>