debconf¶

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 1.6.

You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see the Requirements section for details.

Synopsis¶

Configure a .deb package using debconf-set-selections.
Or just query existing selections.

Requirements¶

The following Python packages are needed on the host that executes this module:

Parameters¶

Parameter	Defaults / Choices	Comments
name str required		Name of package to configure.
question str		A debconf configuration setting.
unseen bool		Do not set C(seen) flag when pre-seeding.
value raw		Value to set the configuration to. After Ansible 2.17, C(value) is of type C(raw).
vtype str	Choices: boolean, error, multiselect, note, password, seen, select, string, text, title	The type of the value supplied. It is highly recommended to add C(no_log=True) to task while specifying O(vtype=password). V(seen) was added in Ansible 2.2. After Ansible 2.17, user can specify C(value) as a list, if C(vtype) is set as V(multiselect).

Notes¶

Note

This module requires the command line debconf tools.
Several questions have to be answered (depending on the package). Use 'debconf-show ' on any Debian or derivative with the package installed to see questions/settings available.
Some distros will always record tasks involving the setting of passwords as changed. This is due to C(debconf-get-selections) masking passwords.
It is highly recommended to add C(no_log=True) to the task while handling sensitive information using this module.
The M(ansible.builtin.debconf) module does not reconfigure packages, it just updates the debconf database. An additional step is needed (typically with C(notify) if debconf makes a change) to reconfigure the package and apply the changes. C(debconf) is extensively used for pre-seeding configuration prior to installation rather than modifying configurations. So, while C(dpkg-reconfigure) does use debconf data, it is not always authoritative and you may need to check how your package is handled.
Also note C(dpkg-reconfigure) is a 3-phase process. It invokes the control scripts from the C(/var/lib/dpkg/info) directory with the C(.prerm reconfigure ), C(.config reconfigure ) and C(.postinst control ) arguments.
The main issue is that the C(.config reconfigure) step for many packages will first reset the debconf database (overriding changes made by this module) by checking the on-disk configuration. If this is the case for your package then C(dpkg-reconfigure) will effectively ignore changes made by debconf.
However as C(dpkg-reconfigure) only executes the C(.config) step if the file exists, it is possible to rename it to C(/var/lib/dpkg/info/.config.ignore) before executing C(dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive ) and then restore it. This seems to be compliant with Debian policy for the .config file.

Examples¶

- name: Set default locale to fr_FR.UTF-8
  ansible.builtin.debconf:
    name: locales
    question: locales/default_environment_locale
    value: fr_FR.UTF-8
    vtype: select

- name: Set to generate locales
  ansible.builtin.debconf:
    name: locales
    question: locales/locales_to_be_generated
    value: en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8
    vtype: multiselect

- name: Accept oracle license
  ansible.builtin.debconf:
    name: oracle-java7-installer
    question: shared/accepted-oracle-license-v1-1
    value: 'true'
    vtype: select

- name: Specifying package you can register/return the list of questions and current values
  ansible.builtin.debconf:
    name: tzdata

- name: Pre-configure tripwire site passphrase
  ansible.builtin.debconf:
    name: tripwire
    question: tripwire/site-passphrase
    value: "{{ site_passphrase }}"
    vtype: password
  no_log: True

Authors¶

Brian Coca (@bcoca)