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community.windows.win_msg – Sends a message to logged in users on Windows hosts

Note

This plugin is part of the community.windows collection (version 1.7.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.windows.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.windows.win_msg.

Synopsis

  • Wraps the msg.exe command in order to send messages to Windows hosts.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
display_seconds
integer
Default:
10
How long to wait for receiver to acknowledge message, in seconds.
msg
string
Default:
"Hello world!"
The text of the message to be displayed.
The message must be less than 256 characters.
to
string
Default:
"*"
Who to send the message to. Can be a username, sessionname or sessionid.
wait
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Whether to wait for users to respond. Module will only wait for the number of seconds specified in display_seconds or 10 seconds if not specified. However, if wait is yes, the message is sent to each logged on user in turn, waiting for the user to either press 'ok' or for the timeout to elapse before moving on to the next user.

Notes

Note

  • This module must run on a windows host, so ensure your play targets windows hosts, or delegates to a windows host.
  • Messages are only sent to the local host where the module is run.
  • The module does not support sending to users listed in a file.
  • Setting wait to yes can result in long run times on systems with many logged in users.

See Also

See also

community.windows.win_say

The official documentation on the community.windows.win_say module.

community.windows.win_toast

The official documentation on the community.windows.win_toast module.

Examples

- name: Warn logged in users of impending upgrade
  community.windows.win_msg:
    display_seconds: 60
    msg: Automated upgrade about to start.  Please save your work and log off before {{ deployment_start_time }}

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description
display_seconds
string
success
Value of display_seconds module parameter.

Sample:
10
msg
string
changed
Test of the message that was sent.

Sample:
Automated upgrade about to start. Please save your work and log off before 22 July 2016 18:00:00
rc
integer
always
The return code of the API call.
runtime_seconds
string
success
How long the module took to run on the remote windows host.

Sample:
22 July 2016 17:45:51
sent_localtime
string
success
local time from windows host when the message was sent.

Sample:
22 July 2016 17:45:51
wait
boolean
success
Value of wait module parameter.


Authors

  • Jon Hawkesworth (@jhawkesworth)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2021 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/windows/win_msg_module.html