# ansible 2.0.0, ansible.cfg, and changing the control\_path **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Developer\ **Created:** [November 9, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713 "2015-11-09T17:07:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/1 "2015-11-09T17:07:48Z")
I have a long path name to my home directory and some fairly long hostnames so I’m hitting the 108 character limit on the control\_path As a test I changed control\_path in the ansible.cfg control\_path = /var/tmp/.ansible/cp/%%h-%%p-%%r Things did not work until I manually created the .ansible/cp inside the /var/tmp/ directory. Any reason Ansible doesn’t securely create the control\_path? My old control\_path control\_path = %(directory)s/%%h-%%p-%%r I do not recall making the (effectively) $HOME/.ansible/cp/ directory so what changes when moving it to /var/tmp? Running ansible with “-vvvv” and taking that command and executing it by hand. $ ssh -C -vvv -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=600s -o ForwardAgent=yes -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o User=ansible -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/var/tmp/.ansible/cp/%h-%p-%r [verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com](http://verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com) LANG=C LC\_ALL=C LC\_MESSAGES=C /usr/bin/python debug3: muxserver\_listen: temporary control path /var/tmp/.ansible/cp/verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com-22-ansible.e36VI5Uh9JoNL2x2 bind: No such file or directory unix\_listener: cannot bind to path: /var/tmp/.ansible/cp/verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com-22-ansible.e36VI5Uh9JoNL2x2 $ mkdir /var/tmp/.ansible $ ssh -C -vvv -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=600s -o ForwardAgent=yes -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o User=ansible -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/var/tmp/.ansible/cp/%h-%p-%r [verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com](http://verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com) LANG=C LC\_ALL=C LC\_MESSAGES=C /usr/bin/python debug3: muxserver\_listen: temporary control path /var/tmp/.ansible/cp/verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com-22-ansible.e36VI5Uh9JoNL2x2 bind: No such file or directory unix\_listener: cannot bind to path: /var/tmp/.ansible/cp/verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com-22-ansible.e36VI5Uh9JoNL2x2 $ mkdir /var/tmp/.ansible/cp $ ssh -C -vvv -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=600s -o ForwardAgent=yes -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o User=ansible -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o ControlPath=/var/tmp/.ansible/cp/%h-%p-%r [verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com](http://verylonghostname.longsubdomain.real-time.com) LANG=C LC\_ALL=C LC\_MESSAGES=C /usr/bin/python Now things work. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/2 "2015-11-09T17:33:42Z")
IIRC ansible only creates the last dir for control path /cp/ in this case, other parts of ansible normally create the ~/.ansible for use of temprary files. I'm not sure we want the controlpath code to create the full tree above the controlpath dir. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/3 "2015-11-09T18:00:54Z")
Fully understand and appreciate the security ramifications related to the control\_path and creating the directory path. Maybe just a doc change inside the ansible.cfg? Stating what you just posted? ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/4 "2015-11-09T18:13:43Z")
I was thinking we can add the path expansion to the jsonfile plugin itself, as it is the one 'knowingly' overloading the config item. ---
**Author:** ![willthames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@willthames](https://forum.ansible.com/u/willthames)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/5 "2015-11-20T05:55:07Z")
Fun and games. I’ve found that control\_path = %(directory)s/%%C can be really helpful in such circumstances (%C is just a hash of %l%h%p%r, so should keep below the limit) I’m not sure in what version of openssh %C became available (seems to be on Fedora 22 but not RHEL7.1, for example) but it’s great if you have it. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Tanner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Bob\_Tanner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bob_Tanner)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-2-0-0-ansible-cfg-and-changing-the-control-path/19713/6 "2015-11-22T20:57:20Z")
Nice find! Thanks!