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ini

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 2.4.

Synopsis

  • INI file based inventory, sections are groups or group related with special C(:modifiers).
  • Entries in sections C([group_1]) are hosts, members of the group.
  • Hosts can have variables defined inline as key/value pairs separated by C(=).
  • The C(children) modifier indicates that the section contains groups.
  • The C(vars) modifier indicates that the section contains variables assigned to members of the group.
  • Anything found outside a section is considered an 'ungrouped' host.
  • Values passed in the INI format using the C(key=value) syntax are interpreted differently depending on where they are declared within your inventory.
  • When declared inline with the host, INI values are processed by Python's ast.literal_eval function (U(https://docs.python.org/3/library/ast.html#ast.literal_eval)) and interpreted as Python literal structures (strings, numbers, tuples, lists, dicts, booleans, None). If you want a number to be treated as a string, you must quote it. Host lines accept multiple C(key=value) parameters per line. Therefore they need a way to indicate that a space is part of a value rather than a separator.
  • When declared in a C(:vars) section, INI values are interpreted as strings. For example C(var=FALSE) would create a string equal to C(FALSE). Unlike host lines, C(:vars) sections accept only a single entry per line, so everything after the C(=) must be the value for the entry.
  • Do not rely on types set during definition, always make sure you specify type with a filter when needed when consuming the variable.
  • See the Examples for proper quoting to prevent changes to variable type.

Notes

Note

  • Enabled in configuration by default.
  • Consider switching to YAML format for inventory sources to avoid confusion on the actual type of a variable. The YAML inventory plugin processes variable values consistently and correctly.

Examples

# fmt: ini
# Example 1
[web]
host1
host2 ansible_port=222 # defined inline, interpreted as an integer

[web:vars]
http_port=8080 # all members of 'web' will inherit these
myvar=23 # defined in a :vars section, interpreted as a string

[web:children] # child groups will automatically add their hosts to parent group
apache
nginx

[apache]
tomcat1
tomcat2 myvar=34 # host specific vars override group vars
tomcat3 mysecret="'03#pa33w0rd'" # proper quoting to prevent value changes

[nginx]
jenkins1

[nginx:vars]
has_java = True # vars in child groups override same in parent

[all:vars]
has_java = False # 'all' is 'top' parent

# Example 2
host1 # this is 'ungrouped'

# both hosts have same IP but diff ports, also 'ungrouped'
host2 ansible_host=127.0.0.1 ansible_port=44
host3 ansible_host=127.0.0.1 ansible_port=45

[g1]
host4

[g2]
host4 # same host as above, but member of 2 groups, will inherit vars from both
      # inventory hostnames are unique