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Introduction🧑🏫
So, are you wondering what Ansible Doc is? And how can it help in the deployment of various IT tools? Let's explore and discuss Ansible and Ansible Docs.
Before discussing Ansible Docs, firstly, let us know about Ansible.
About Ansible
Ansible is an open-source IT engine that automates the deployment of many IT tools, including intra-service orchestration, cloud provisioning, and application deployment. It has no agents or custom security infrastructures, making deployment simple.
Ansible uses playbooks for describing automation jobs, and which use YAML(Yet Another Markup Language), a simple language for humans to write, understand, and read. YAML is a simple human-readable data serialisation language used in configuration files, but it can be used in various other applications where data is stored. An IT infrastructure support person can also understand, read, and debug these playbooks as necessary.
Ansible is designed for multi-level deployment. Ansible changes IT infrastructure by describing how all the systems are interrelated to each other rather than managing one system simultaneously. Because Ansible is entirely agentless, it connects your nodes using SSH(by default). However, Ansible allows you to use the option of using another connection method, such as Kerberos.
Now we will learn about Ansible Docs.
About Ansible Docs
Ansible doc is a tool provided by the core package of Ansible which contains all the documentation of all the plugins and modules installed in Ansible libraries. This doc works as a command on the CMD(command line prompt). This command/tool helps you by providing documentation on modules and plugins, available parameters, a short description, their use, and related options.
Ansible doc also provides example snippets for most of the available plugins and modules, which can be used in playbooks. Also, for self-created or customized non-default modules, Ansible docs are used to read that documentation from the libraries when we have to provide information via documentation.
Ansible docs is a command line tool that works just as another command on Unix/Linux. When we create a playbook and are unsure about any plugin or module, we can use an ansible doc to read about the documentation of these related modules or plugins. This helps us understand the insights of a module or plugin and other related possibilities that can be used for the same.
Also, while working with an ansible doc, one must be aware of the below-mentioned points:
The ansible-config variable is defined to override the default configuration.
There are info and manual pages for the Ansible doc command, which can be referred to while working for ease because learning every command is impossible.
While working with ansible docs, the environment should be appropriately configured.
The file used for default configuration is -> ' /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg or ~/.ansible.cfg '.
While creating a custom module, the documentation part plays a necessary aspect, and the syntax for this documentation will be like below:
DOCUMENTATION = '''
---
module: example_module
short_description: Description of module
# ... continue below with other fields ... '''
Common Commands
Syntax of all the below-mentioned commands if prefixed by ‘ansible-doc’ keyword as follows:
For internal use only. Dump json metadata for all entries, and ignore other options.
--no-fail-on-errors
It is used internally only. Only used for metadata dump. Do not fail on getting errors and report the error message in the JSON instead.
--playbook-dir <base_directory>
This command sets the relative path for many features, including roles/ group_vars/ etc.
--version
Shows the program’s version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location, and exit.
-F, --list_files
Show the name of the plugin and its source files without a summary. A supplied argument will be used to filter, and it can be a namespace or full collection name.
-M, --module-path
This command give colon-separated paths of module library (default = ~/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules).
-h, --help
Show this help message and exit.
-e <entry_point>,
--entry-point <entry_point>
Select the entry point for a role(s).
-j, --json
Change output into json format.
-l, --list
To get the list of all available plugins. An argument will be used for filtering, can be a namespace or full collection name.
-r, --roles-path
This command shows a directory path containing your roles.
-s, --snippet
This command shows a playbook snippet of the following plugin types: inventory, module, and lookup.
-t <type>, --type <type>
It is used to choose plugin type (defaults to "module"). Available plugin types are : ('become', 'callback', 'cache', 'connection', 'cliconf', 'lookup', 'httpapi', 'vars', 'inventory', 'netconf', 'shell', 'keyword', 'module', 'strategy', 'role').
-v, --verbose
This command is used for printing debug messages. Adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, a reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv, and the built-in plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv.
Now it’s time for the questions. Let us move to the FAQs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ansible Docs?
Ansible doc is a very useful tool to understand Ansible's know-how and what. This command/tool helps you by providing documentation on modules and plugins, available parameters, a short description, their use, and related options.
Name various plugin types available.
The various plugin types available in ansible docs are - 'become', 'callback', 'cache', 'connection', 'cliconf', 'lookup', 'httpapi', 'vars', 'inventory', 'netconf', 'shell', 'keyword', 'module', 'strategy', 'role'.
What is the language used by Ansible?
Ansible uses YAML templates that are readable by humans so that users can program repetitive tasks without needing to learn an advanced programming language. You can write your modules or use the ones with Ansible to automate tasks.
What is the module library(default) of ansible doc?
The default module library is - ~/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules
Is coding necessary for Ansible?
Ansible is an open-source, free application that is simple to set up and utilize. Playbooks from Ansible don't need any specialized coding knowledge. Without the necessity for configuration files, Ansible may be used to perform basic tasks like rebooting from the command line or ensuring that a service is operating.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed the introduction to Ansible docs, its syntax, parameters, it's working, various standard options, etc. You can also visit our other suggested articles to learn more about Ansible, apart from Ansible docs if you are eager to enhance your knowledge regarding Ansible.
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