---
name: "ansible-console"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ansible-core"
version: "2.21.5-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ansible-console"
---

# ansible-console(1)

REPL console for executing Ansible tasks.

## Name

ansible-console - REPL console for executing Ansible tasks.

## SYNOPSIS

- **usage: ansible-console \[-h\] \[--version\] \[-v\] \[-b\]**

  \[--become-method BECOME\_METHOD\] \[--become-user BECOME\_USER\] \[-K \| --become-password-file BECOME\_PASSWORD\_FILE\] \[-i INVENTORY\] \[--list-hosts\] \[-l SUBSET\] \[--flush-cache\] \[--private-key PRIVATE\_KEY\_FILE\] \[-u REMOTE\_USER\] \[-c CONNECTION\] \[-T TIMEOUT\] \[--ssh-common-args SSH\_COMMON\_ARGS\] \[--sftp-extra-args SFTP\_EXTRA\_ARGS\] \[--scp-extra-args SCP\_EXTRA\_ARGS\] \[--ssh-extra-args SSH\_EXTRA\_ARGS\] \[-k \| --connection-password-file CONNECTION\_PASSWORD\_FILE\] \[-C\] \[-D\] \[--vault-id VAULT\_IDS\] \[-J \| --vault-password-file VAULT\_PASSWORD\_FILES\] \[-f FORKS\] \[-M MODULE\_PATH\] \[--playbook-dir BASEDIR\] \[-e EXTRA\_VARS\] \[--task-timeout TASK\_TIMEOUT\] \[--step\] \[pattern\]

## DESCRIPTION

A REPL that allows for running ad-hoc tasks against a chosen inventory from a nice shell with built-in tab completion (based on dominis' **ansible-shell**).

It supports several commands, and you can modify its configuration at runtime:

- •

  **cd \[pattern\]**: change host/group (you can use host patterns eg.: **app\*.dc\*:!app01\***)

- •

  **list**: list available hosts in the current path

- •

  **list groups**: list groups included in the current path

- •

  **become**: toggle the become flag

- •

  **!**: forces shell module instead of the ansible module (**!yum update -y**)

- •

  **verbosity \[num\]**: set the verbosity level

- •

  **forks \[num\]**: set the number of forks

- •

  **become\_user \[user\]**: set the become\_user

- •

  **remote\_user \[user\]**: set the remote\_user

- •

  **become\_method \[method\]**: set the privilege escalation method

- •

  **check \[bool\]**: toggle check mode

- •

  **diff \[bool\]**: toggle diff mode

- •

  **timeout \[integer\]**: set the timeout of tasks in seconds (0 to disable)

- •

  **help \[command/module\]**: display documentation for the command or module

- •

  **exit**: exit **ansible-console**

## COMMON OPTIONS

host pattern

- **--become-method** 'BECOME\_METHOD'

  privilege escalation method to use (default=sudo), use *ansible-doc -t become -l* to list valid choices.

- **--become-password-file** 'BECOME\_PASSWORD\_FILE', **--become-pass-file** 'BECOME\_PASSWORD\_FILE'

  Become password file

- **--become-user** 'BECOME\_USER'

  run operations as this user (default=root)

- **--connection-password-file** 'CONNECTION\_PASSWORD\_FILE', **--conn-pass-file** 'CONNECTION\_PASSWORD\_FILE'

  Connection password file

- **--flush-cache**

  clear the fact cache for every host in inventory

- **--list-hosts**

  outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else

- **--playbook-dir** 'BASEDIR'

  Since this tool does not use playbooks, use this as a substitute playbook directory. This sets the relative path for many features including roles/ group\_vars/ etc.

- **--private-key** 'PRIVATE\_KEY\_FILE', **--key-file** 'PRIVATE\_KEY\_FILE'

  use this file to authenticate the connection

- **--scp-extra-args** 'SCP\_EXTRA\_ARGS'

  specify extra arguments to pass to scp only (e.g. -l)

- **--sftp-extra-args** 'SFTP\_EXTRA\_ARGS'

  specify extra arguments to pass to sftp only (e.g. -f, -l)

- **--ssh-common-args** 'SSH\_COMMON\_ARGS'

  specify common arguments to pass to sftp/scp/ssh (e.g. ProxyCommand)

- **--ssh-extra-args** 'SSH\_EXTRA\_ARGS'

  specify extra arguments to pass to ssh only (e.g. -R)

- **--step**

  one-step-at-a-time: confirm each task before running

- **--task-timeout** 'TASK\_TIMEOUT'

  set task timeout limit in seconds, must be positive integer.

- **--vault-id**

  the vault identity to use. This argument may be specified multiple times.

- **--vault-password-file**, **--vault-pass-file**

  vault password file

- **--version**

  show program's version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit

- **-C**, **--check**

  don't make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur

- **-D**, **--diff**

  when changing (small) files and templates, show the differences in those files; works great with --check

- **-J**, **--ask-vault-password**, **--ask-vault-pass**

  ask for vault password

- **-K**, **--ask-become-pass**

  ask for privilege escalation password

- **-M**, **--module-path**

  prepend colon-separated path(s) to module library (default={{ ANSIBLE\_HOME ~ "/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules" }}). This argument may be specified multiple times.

- **-T** 'TIMEOUT', **--timeout** 'TIMEOUT'

  override the connection timeout in seconds (default depends on connection)

- **-b**, **--become**

  run operations with become (does not imply password prompting)

- **-c** 'CONNECTION', **--connection** 'CONNECTION'

  connection type to use (default=ssh)

- **-e**, **--extra-vars**

  set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @. This argument may be specified multiple times.

- **-f** 'FORKS', **--forks** 'FORKS'

  specify number of parallel processes to use (default=5)

- **-h**, **--help**

  show this help message and exit

- **-i**, **--inventory**, **--inventory-file**

  specify inventory host path or comma separated host list. This argument may be specified multiple times.

- **-k**, **--ask-pass**

  ask for connection password

- **-l** 'SUBSET', **--limit** 'SUBSET'

  further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern

- **-u** 'REMOTE\_USER', **--user** 'REMOTE\_USER'

  connect as this user (default=None)

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Causes Ansible to print more debug messages. Adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. A reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv. This argument may be specified multiple times.

## ARGUMENTS

host-pattern

A name of a group in the inventory, a shell-like glob selecting hosts in inventory or any combination of the two separated by commas.

## INVENTORY

Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory. This can be an YAML file, ini-like file, a script, directory, list, etc. For additional options, see the documentation on \<https://docs.ansible.com/\>.

## ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables may be specified.

ANSIBLE\_INVENTORY  -- Override the default ansible inventory sources

ANSIBLE\_LIBRARY -- Override the default ansible module library path

ANSIBLE\_CONFIG -- Specify override location for the ansible config file

Many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg

For a full list check \<https://docs.ansible.com/\>. or use the *ansible-config* command.

## FILES

/etc/ansible/hosts -- Default inventory file

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg -- Config file, used if present

\~/.ansible.cfg -- User config file, overrides the default config if present

./ansible.cfg -- Local config file (in current working directory) assumed to be 'project specific' and overrides the rest if present.

As mentioned above, the ANSIBLE\_CONFIG environment variable will override all others.

## AUTHOR

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2018 Red Hat, Inc \| Ansible. Ansible is released under the terms of the GPLv3 license.

## SEE ALSO

**ansible** (1), **ansible-config** (1), **ansible-doc** (1), **ansible-galaxy** (1), **ansible-inventory** (1), **ansible-playbook** (1), **ansible-pull** (1), **ansible-vault** (1)

Extensive documentation is available in the documentation site: \<\<https://docs.ansible.com\>\>. IRC and mailing list info can be found in file CONTRIBUTING.md, available in: \<\<https://github.com/ansible/ansible\>\>