Execute command on the Ansible host - Ansible localhost

How to execute Ansible command(s) or task(s) on localhost using the connection plugin local and the right ansible internals variables.

How to Execute command on the Ansible host?

When Ansible becomes part of your daily workflow it is natural you would like to automate also task in your local machine.

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.

Execute command on the Ansible host options

connection plugin

delegate_to: localhost

local_action

There are three ways to execute modules and commands on the Ansible Controller host.

The first and my favorite is using the connection plugin local and applying it to the Ansible Play level of your Playbook. The tricky was is to adjust some ansible variables about the python interpreter. I consider it the best way nowadays.

The second way is using the delegate_to at the Task level. This has the advantage to delegate only one task to localhost but still needs only the implicit localhost scheme.

The third way is using the local_action statement. I personally don't like it but it's one alternative as well at Task level, so same as the previous.

Links

[Controlling where tasks run: delegation and local actions](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_delegation.html)

[Implicit ‘localhost’](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/inventory/implicit_localhost.html)

## Playbook

How to Execute command on the Ansible host using connection: local method.

code

``yaml


---
name: localhost Playbook
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    ansible_connection: local
    ansible_python_interpreter: "{{ ansible_playbook_python }}"
  tasks:
    - name: print hostname
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"



execution

`bash


ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook ansible\ statements/localhost.yml
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit
localhost does not match 'all'
PLAY [localhost Playbook] *
TASK [Gathering Facts] 
ok: [localhost]
TASK [print hostname] *
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "localhost"
}
PLAY RECAP **
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $



idempotency

``bash

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook ansible\ statements/localhost.yml

[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available

[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit

localhost does not match 'all'

PLAY [localhost Playbook] *

TASK [Gathering Fac