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ansible.builtin.shell module – Execute shell commands on targets

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name shell even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.shell for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

  • The ansible.builtin.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

Comments

chdir

path

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

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

A filename, when it does not exist, this step will not be run.

stdin

string

Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value.

stdin_add_newline

boolean

added in Ansible 2.8

Whether to append a newline to stdin data.

Choices:

  • false
  • true ← (default)

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

check_mode

Support: partial

while the command itself is arbitrary and cannot be subject to the check mode semantics it adds creates/removes options as a workaround

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.

diff_mode

Support: none

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform

Platform: posix

Target OS/families that can be operated against

raw

Support: full

Indicates if an action takes a ‘raw’ or ‘free form’ string as an option and has it’s own special parsing of it

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.
  • To sanitize any variables passed to the shell module, you should use {{ var | quote }} instead of just {{ 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.
  • If the command returns non UTF-8 data, it must be encoded to avoid issues. One option is to pipe the output through base64.

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.command

Execute commands on targets.

ansible.builtin.raw

Executes a low-down and dirty command.

ansible.builtin.script

Runs a local script on a remote node after transferring it.

ansible.windows.win_shell

Execute shell commands on target hosts.

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

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

cmd

string

The command executed by the task.

Returned: always

Sample: "rabbitmqctl join_cluster rabbit@master"

delta

string

The command execution delta time.

Returned: always

Sample: "0:00:00.325771"

end

string

The command execution end time.

Returned: always

Sample: "2016-02-25 09:18:26.755339"

msg

boolean

changed

Returned: always

Sample: true

rc

integer

The command return code (0 means success).

Returned: always

Sample: 0

start

string

The command execution start time.

Returned: always

Sample: "2016-02-25 09:18:26.429568"

stderr

string

The command standard error.

Returned: always

Sample: "ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory"

stderr_lines

list / elements=string

The command standard error split in lines.

Returned: always

Sample: [{"u'ls cannot access foo": "No such file or directory'"}, "u'ls \u2026'"]

stdout

string

The command standard output.

Returned: always

Sample: "Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master \u2026"

stdout_lines

list / elements=string

The command standard output split in lines.

Returned: always

Sample: ["u'Clustering node rabbit@slave1 with rabbit@master \u2026'"]

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team
  • Michael DeHaan

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2025 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/shell_module.html