ansible.windows.win_shell - Execute shell commands on target hosts

This plugin is part of the ansible.windows collection (version 1.3.0).

To install it use: ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.windows.win_shell.

• Synopsis
• Parameters
• Notes
• See Also
• Examples
• Return Values

Synopsis

• The ansible.windows.win_shell module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments. It is similar to the ansible.windows.win_command module, but runs the command via a shell (defaults to PowerShell) on the target host.

• For non-Windows targets, use the ansible.builtin.shell module instead.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
chdir path		Set the specified path as the current working directory before executing a command
creates path		A path or path filter pattern; when the referenced path exists on the target host, the task will be skipped.
executable path		Change the shell used to execute the command (eg, cmd). The target shell must accept a /c parameter followed by the raw command line to be executed.
free_form string / required		The ansible.windows.win_shell module takes a free form command to run. There is no parameter actually named 'free form'. See the examples!
no_profile boolean	no ← yes	Do not load the user profile before running a command. This is only valid when using PowerShell as the executable.
output_encoding_override string		This option overrides the encoding of stdout/stderr output. You can use this option when you need to run a command which ignore the console's codepage. You should only need to use this option in very rare circumstances. This value can be any valid encoding Name based on the output of [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncodings(). See //docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.text.encoding.getencodings.
removes path		A path or path filter pattern; when the referenced path does not exist on the target host, the task will be skipped.
stdin string		Set the stdin of the command directly to the specified value.

Notes

• If you want to run an executable securely and predictably, it may be better to use the ansible.windows.win_command module instead. Best practices when writing playbooks will follow the trend of using ansible.windows.win_command unless win_shell is explicitly required. When running ad-hoc commands, use your best judgement.

• WinRM will not return from a command execution until all child processes created have exited. Thus, it is not possible to use ansible.windows.win_shell to spawn long-running child or background processes. Consider creating a Windows service for managing background processes.

See Also

See also

community.windows.psexec

The official documentation on the community.windows.psexec module.

ansible.builtin.raw

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.raw module.

ansible.builtin.script

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.script module.

ansible.builtin.shell

The official documentation on the ansible.builtin.shell module.

ansible.windows.win_command

The official documentation on the ansible.windows.win_command module.

community.windows.win_psexec

The official documentation on the community.windows.win_psexec module.

Examples

- name: Execute a comand in the remote shell, stdout goes to the specified file on the remote
  ansible.windows.win_shell: C:\somescript.ps1 >> C:\somelog.txt

- name: Change the working directory to somedir/ before executing the command
  ansible.windows.win_shell: C:\somescript.ps1 >> C:\somelog.txt
  args:
    chdir: C:\somedir

- name: Run a command with an idempotent check on what it creates, will only run when somedir/somelog.txt does not exist
  ansible.windows.win_shell: C:\somescript.ps1 >> C:\somelog.txt
  args:
    chdir: C:\somedir
    creates: C:\somelog.txt

- name: Run a command under a non-Powershell interpreter (cmd in this case)
  ansible.windows.win_shell: echo %HOMEDIR%
  args:
    executable: cmd
  register: homedir_out

- name: Run multi-lined shell commands
  ansible.windows.win_shell: |
    $value = Test-Path -Path C:\temp
    if ($value) {
        Remove-Item -Path C:\temp -Force
    }    New-Item -Path C:\temp -ItemType Directory

- name: Retrieve the input based on stdin
  ansible.windows.win_shell: '$string = [Console]::In.ReadToEnd(); Write-Output $string.Trim()'
  args:
    stdin: Input message

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Returned	Description
cmd string	always	The command executed by the task. Sample: rabbitmqctl join_cluster [email protected]
delta string	always	The command execution delta time. Sample: 0:00:00.325771
end string	always	The command execution end time. Sample: 2016-02-25 09:18:26.755339
msg boolean	always	Changed. Sample: True
rc integer	always	The command return code (0 means success).
start string	always	The command execution start time. Sample: 2016-02-25 09:18:26.429568
stderr string	always	The command standard error. Sample: ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory
stdout string	always	The command standard output. Sample: Clustering node [email protected] with [email protected] ...
stdout_lines list / elements=string	always	The command standard output split in lines. Sample: ["u'Clustering node [email protected] with [email protected] ...'"]

Authors

• Matt Davis (@nitzmahone)

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