win_template – Template a file out to a remote server¶
Synopsis¶
- Templates are processed by the Jinja2 templating language.
- Documentation on the template formatting can be found in the Template Designer Documentation.
- Additional variables listed below can be used in templates.
ansible_managed
(configurable via thedefaults
section ofansible.cfg
) contains a string which can be used to describe the template name, host, modification time of the template file and the owner uid.template_host
contains the node name of the template’s machine.template_uid
is the numeric user id of the owner.template_path
is the path of the template.template_fullpath
is the absolute path of the template.template_destpath
is the path of the template on the remote system (added in 2.8).template_run_date
is the date that the template was rendered.
Parameters¶
Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments |
---|---|---|
backup
boolean
added in 2.8 |
|
Determine whether a backup should be created.
When set to
yes , 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
string
added in 2.4 |
Default: "%}"
|
The string marking the end of a block.
|
block_start_string
string
added in 2.4 |
Default: "{%"
|
The string marking the beginning of a block.
|
dest
path
/ required
|
Location to render the template to on the remote machine.
|
|
force
boolean
added in 2.4 |
|
Determine when the file is being transferred if the destination already exists.
When set to
yes , replace the remote file when contents are different than the source.When set to
no , the file will only be transferred if the destination does not exist. |
lstrip_blocks
boolean
added in 2.6 |
|
Determine when leading spaces and tabs should be stripped.
When set to
yes leading spaces and tabs are stripped from the start of a line to a block.This functionality requires Jinja 2.7 or newer.
|
newline_sequence
string
added in 2.4 |
|
Specify the newline sequence to use for templating files.
|
output_encoding
string
added in 2.7 |
Default: "utf-8"
|
Overrides the encoding used to write the template file defined by
dest .It defaults to
utf-8 , but any encoding supported by python can be used.The source template file must always be encoded using
utf-8 , for homogeneity. |
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
utf-8 but output_encoding can be used to control the encoding of the output template. |
|
trim_blocks
boolean
added in 2.4 |
|
Determine when newlines should be removed from blocks.
When set to
yes the first newline after a block is removed (block, not variable tag!). |
variable_end_string
string
added in 2.4 |
Default: "}}"
|
The string marking the end of a print statement.
|
variable_start_string
string
added in 2.4 |
Default: "{{"
|
The string marking the beginning of a print statement.
|
Notes¶
Note
- Beware fetching files from windows machines when creating templates because certain tools, such as Powershell ISE, and regedit’s export facility add a Byte Order Mark as the first character of the file, which can cause tracebacks.
- You can use the win_copy module with the
content:
option if you prefer the template inline, as part of the playbook. - For Linux you can use template which uses ‘\n’ as
newline_sequence
by default. - 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
trim_blocks=True
. - Also, you can override jinja2 settings by adding a special header to template file. i.e.
#jinja2:variable_start_string:'[%', variable_end_string:'%]', trim_blocks: False
which changes the variable interpolation markers to[% var %]
instead of{{ var }}
. This is the best way to prevent evaluation of things that look like, but should not be Jinja2. - Using raw/endraw in Jinja2 will not work as you expect because templates in Ansible are recursively evaluated.
- To find Byte Order Marks in files, use
Format-Hex <file> -Count 16
on Windows, and useod -a -t x1 -N 16 <file>
on Linux.
See Also¶
See also
- win_copy – Copies files to remote locations on windows hosts
- The official documentation on the win_copy module.
- copy – Copy files to remote locations
- The official documentation on the copy module.
- template – Template a file out to a remote server
- The official documentation on the template module.
Examples¶
- name: Create a file from a Jinja2 template
win_template:
src: /mytemplates/file.conf.j2
dest: C:\Temp\file.conf
- name: Create a Unix-style file from a Jinja2 template
win_template:
src: unix/config.conf.j2
dest: C:\share\unix\config.conf
newline_sequence: '\n'
backup: yes
Return Values¶
Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:
Key | Returned | Description |
---|---|---|
backup_file
string
|
if backup=yes |
Name of the backup file that was created.
Sample:
C:\Path\To\File.txt.11540.20150212-220915.bak
|
Status¶
- This module is guaranteed to have no backward incompatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]
Red Hat Support¶
More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.
Authors¶
- Jon Hawkesworth (@jhawkesworth)
Hint
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