Skip to content

template

Collection Note

This module is part of the ansible.builtin collection. To install the collection, use:

ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.builtin
Added in version historical.

Synopsis

  • Templates are processed by the L(Jinja2 templating language,https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/).
  • Documentation on the template formatting can be found in the L(Template Designer Documentation,https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/templates/).
  • Additional variables listed below can be used in templates.
  • C(ansible_managed) (configurable via the C(defaults) section of C(ansible.cfg)) contains a string which can be used to describe the template name, host, modification time of the template file and the owner uid.
  • C(template_host) contains the node name of the template's machine.
  • C(template_uid) is the numeric user id of the owner.
  • C(template_path) is the path of the template.
  • C(template_fullpath) is the absolute path of the template.
  • C(template_destpath) is the path of the template on the remote system (added in 2.8).
  • C(template_run_date) is the date that the template was rendered.

Parameters

Parameter Defaults / Choices Comments
attributes
str		 The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.
To get supported flags look at the man page for C(chattr) on the target system.
This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by C(lsattr).
The C(=) operator is assumed as default, otherwise C(+) or C(-) operators need to be included in the string.
Version Added: 2.3
backup
bool		 Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
block_end_string
str		 Default: %}
 The string marking the end of a block.
Version Added: 2.4
block_start_string
str		 Default: {%
 The string marking the beginning of a block.
Version Added: 2.4
comment_end_string
str		 The string marking the end of a comment statement.
Version Added: 2.12
comment_start_string
str		 The string marking the beginning of a comment statement.
Version Added: 2.12
dest
path
required		 Location to render the template to on the remote machine.
follow
bool		 Determine whether symbolic links should be followed.
When set to V(true) symbolic links will be followed, if they exist.
When set to V(false) symbolic links will not be followed.
Previous to Ansible 2.4, this was hardcoded as V(true).
Version Added: 2.4
force
bool		 Default: True
 Determine when the file is being transferred if the destination already exists.
When set to C(yes), replace the remote file when contents are different than the source.
When set to C(no), the file will only be transferred if the destination does not exist.
group
str		 Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to C(chown).
When left unspecified, it uses the current group of the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.
lstrip_blocks
bool		 Determine when leading spaces and tabs should be stripped.
When set to V(yes) leading spaces and tabs are stripped from the start of a line to a block.
Version Added: 2.6
mode
raw		 The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.
For those used to C(/usr/bin/chmod) remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must give Ansible enough information to parse them correctly. For consistent results, quote octal numbers (for example, V('644') or V('1777')) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, V(0755)) works sometimes, but can fail in loops and some other circumstances.
Giving Ansible a number without following either of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.
As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, V(u+rwx) or V(u=rw,g=r,o=r)).
If O(mode) is not specified and the destination filesystem object B(does not) exist, the default C(umask) on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created filesystem object.
If O(mode) is not specified and the destination filesystem object B(does) exist, the mode of the existing filesystem object will be used.
Specifying O(mode) is the best way to ensure filesystem objects are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.
newline_sequence
str		 Default: \n
Choices: \n, \r, \r\n		 Specify the newline sequence to use for templating files.
Version Added: 2.4
output_encoding
str		 Default: utf-8
 Overrides the encoding used to write the template file defined by O(dest).
It defaults to C(utf-8), but any encoding supported by python can be used.
The source template file must always be encoded using C(utf-8), for homogeneity.
Version Added: 2.7
owner
str		 Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to C(chown).
When left unspecified, it uses the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.
Specifying a numeric username will be assumed to be a user ID and not a username. Avoid numeric usernames to avoid this confusion.
selevel
str		 The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the C(range).
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(level) portion of the policy if available.
serole
str		 The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(role) portion of the policy if available.
setype
str		 The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(type) portion of the policy if available.
seuser
str		 The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
By default it uses the V(system) policy, where applicable.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(user) portion of the policy if available.
src
path
required		 Path of a Jinja2 formatted template on the Ansible controller.
This can be a relative or an absolute path.
The file must be encoded with C(utf-8) but O(output_encoding) can be used to control the encoding of the output template.
trim_blocks
bool		 Default: True
 Determine when newlines should be removed from blocks.
When set to V(yes) the first newline after a block is removed (block, not variable tag!).
Version Added: 2.4
unsafe_writes
bool		 Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem object.
By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem objects, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted filesystem objects, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.
This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating filesystem objects when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn't force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).
IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.
Version Added: 2.2
validate
str		 The validation command to run before copying the updated file into the final destination.
A temporary file path is used to validate, passed in through C(%s) which must be present as in the examples below.
Also, the command is passed securely so shell features such as expansion and pipes will not work.
For an example on how to handle more complex validation than what this option provides, see R(handling complex validation,complex_configuration_validation).
variable_end_string
str		 Default: }}
 The string marking the end of a print statement.
Version Added: 2.4
variable_start_string
str		 Default: {{
 The string marking the beginning of a print statement.
Version Added: 2.4

Notes

Note

  • For Windows you can use M(ansible.windows.win_template) which uses V(\r\n) as O(newline_sequence) by default.
  • The C(jinja2_native) setting has no effect. Native types are never used in the M(ansible.builtin.template) module which is by design used for generating text files. For working with templates and utilizing Jinja2 native types see the O(ansible.builtin.template#lookup:jinja2_native) parameter of the P(ansible.builtin.template#lookup) lookup.
  • Including a string that uses a date in the template will result in the template being marked 'changed' each time.
  • Since Ansible 0.9, templates are loaded with O(trim_blocks=True).

  • Also, you can override jinja2 settings by adding a special header to template file. that is C(#jinja2:variable_start_string:'[%', variable_end_string:'%]', trim_blocks: False) which changes the variable interpolation markers to C([% var %]) instead of C({{ var }}). This is the best way to prevent evaluation of things that look like, but should not be Jinja2.

  • To find Byte Order Marks in files, use C(Format-Hex -Count 16) on Windows, and use C(od -a -t x1 -N 16 ) on Linux.

Examples

- name: Template a file to /etc/file.conf
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: /mytemplates/foo.j2
    dest: /etc/file.conf
    owner: bin
    group: wheel
    mode: '0644'

- name: Template a file, using symbolic modes (equivalent to 0644)
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: /mytemplates/foo.j2
    dest: /etc/file.conf
    owner: bin
    group: wheel
    mode: u=rw,g=r,o=r

- name: Copy a version of named.conf that is dependent on the OS. setype obtained by doing ls -Z /etc/named.conf on original file
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: named.conf_{{ ansible_os_family }}.j2
    dest: /etc/named.conf
    group: named
    setype: named_conf_t
    mode: '0640'

- name: Create a DOS-style text file from a template
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: config.ini.j2
    dest: /share/windows/config.ini
    newline_sequence: '\r\n'

- name: Copy a new sudoers file into place, after passing validation with visudo
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: /mine/sudoers
    dest: /etc/sudoers
    validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -cf %s

- name: Update sshd configuration safely, avoid locking yourself out
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: etc/ssh/sshd_config.j2
    dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: '0600'
    validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
    backup: yes

Return Values

Key Data Type Description Returned
checksum str SHA1 checksum of the rendered file always
dest str Destination file/path, equal to the value passed to I(dest). success
gid int Numeric id representing the group of the owner success
group str Group name of owner success
md5sum str MD5 checksum of the rendered file changed
mode str Unix permissions of the file in octal representation as a string success
owner str User name of owner success
size int Size of the rendered file in bytes success
src str Source file used for the copy on the target machine. changed
uid int Numeric id representing the file owner success

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team
  • Michael Dehaan