Simplifying Ansible Output with the community.general.unixy Callback Plugin

Learn how to enhance Ansible playbook readability by using the community.general.unixy callback plugin for cleaner and more concise output.

Introduction

Ansible is a powerful open-source automation tool that simplifies configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. When running Ansible playbooks, the default output can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when dealing with a large number of hosts and tasks. The community.general.unixy callback plugin offers a condensed and readable format for Ansible output, resembling the familiar style of LINUX/UNIX startup logs.

Understanding Callback Plugins

Callback plugins in Ansible allow you to customize and enhance the output generated during playbook execution. The community.general.unixy callback plugin is a stdout callback, meaning it alters the standard output format of Ansible when running playbooks.

Configuration Setup

To enable the community.general.unixy callback plugin, you need to make a few configurations in your Ansible setup. In the ansible.cfg file, add the following lines under the [defaults] section:

``ini


[defaults]
callbacks_enabled = community.general.unixy
stdout_callback = community.general.unixy

This ensures that the community.general.unixy callback plugin is activated and set as the stdout callback.



Example Playbook

Let's consider a simple Ansible playbook named ping.yml that utilizes the ansible.builtin.ping module to test the connection to all hosts:

`yaml


---
name: Ping module Playbook
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Test connection
      ansible.builtin.ping:

In the provided inventory file (inventory), the connection is set to local:

`yaml


localhost ansible_connection=local



Running Playbooks Without and With Unixy Callback

Without Unixy:

`bash


ansible-playbook -i inventory ping.yml



The default output might look like this:


PLAY [Ping module Playbook] *

TASK [Gathering Facts] 
[WARNING]: Platform darwin on host localhost is using the discovered Python interpreter
at /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.12, but future installation of another Python interpreter
could change the meaning of that path. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-
core/2.16/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Test connection] 
ok: [localhost]

PLAY RECAP **
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0



With Unixy:

`bash


ansible-playbook -i inventory ping.yml



Enabling the Unixy callback plugin results in a more concise and readable output:

Executing playbook ping.yml

Ping module Playbook on hosts: all -

Gathering Facts...

[WARNING]: Platform darwin on host localhost is using the discovered Python interpreter

at /opt/homebrew/bin/py