How to checkout git repository via SSH?

I'm going to show you a live Playbook with some simple Ansible code.

I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot

Ansible checkout git repository

Today we're talking about Ansible module git.

The full name is ansible.builtin.git which means is part of the collection of modules "builtin" with ansible and shipped with it.

This module is pretty stable and out for years.

The purpose is to Deploy software (or files) from git checkouts in our managed hosts.

If you would like to fetch via SSH please refer to: [Checkout git repository HTTPS - Ansible module git](/articles/checkout-git-repository-https-ansible-module-git)

Parameters and Return Values

The parameter list is pretty wide but I'll summarize the most useful.

  • repo _path_
  • dest _string_
  • update _boolean_
  • key_file _path_ - SSH private key

The parameter list is pretty wide but I'll summarize the most useful.

The only required parameters are "repo" and "dest".

The "repo" parameter specifies the source repository URL, in our use case, in the SSH way.

The "dest" parameter specifies the destination path.

The "update" parameter retrieves new revisions from the already synched origin repository.

The "key_file" parameter specifies the path in the filesystem where to store the SSH private key.

Please note that the SSH private key is a path on the target host.

Please note also that the SSH public key needs to be already shared in your Git server.

  • after _string_

The most interesting return value is "after" which contains the last commit after the update process.

Demo

Let's jump in a real-life playbook to checkout a git repository with Ansible

  • git_ssh.yml

``yaml

---

  • name: git module Playbook

hosts: all

vars:

repo: "[email protected]:lucab85/ansible-pilot.git"

dest: "/home/devops/ansible-pilot"

sshkey: "~/.ssh/id_rsa"

tasks:

- name: ensure git pkg installed

ansible.builtin.yum:

name: git

state: present

update_cache: true

become: true

- name: checkout git repo

ansible.builtin.git:

repo: "{{ repo }}"

dest: "{{ dest }}"

key_file: "{{ sshkey }}"

``

[code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot/tree/master/checkout%20git%20repository)

Conclusion

Now you know how to checkout git repository via SSH with Ansible.