Is there a way to shortcut local host?

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1

This pops up in a significant share of my scripts:

  • hosts: 127.0.0.1
    connection: local
    gather_facts: false

Is there any way to shortcut this to something shorter like

  • local_script

or somesuch?

2

In inventory

[local]
localhost ansible_connection=local

3

On an individual task level you can do either:

<modulename>: <moduleargs>
delegate_to: localhost

or

local_action: <modulename> <moduleargs>

which will do a local action. However it would do this X times, where X == the number of hosts in your hosts: definition for that play.

The most clean way to do a single local action is to do like you've been, create a play with hosts: localhost and the tasks you wish to execute there. Because it really is a separate play, outside the host loop of other plays, you do need the play headers.

As of 1.5, localhost is an implicit member of your inventory, with a default connection of local, so you shouldn't have to specify that bit.

-jlk