# Settings for ansible\_shell\_type in inventory file not work

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/settings-for-ansible-shell-type-in-inventory-file-not-work/21227>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [April 21, 2016, 9:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/settings-for-ansible-shell-type-in-inventory-file-not-work/21227 "2016-04-21T09:02:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WD\_Wang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@WD\_Wang](https://forum.ansible.com/u/WD_Wang)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 9:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/settings-for-ansible-shell-type-in-inventory-file-not-work/21227/1 "2016-04-21T09:02:31Z")

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hi,

I can use the command below to send some files to remote:

$ ansible -e ‘ansible\_shell\_type=sh’ -i hosts -m synchronize -a “src=node\_modules/ dest=/tmp/node\_modules/” dev  
host1 | SUCCESS =\> {  
“changed”: false,  
“cmd”: “/usr/bin/rsync --delay-updates -F --compress --archive --rsh ‘/usr/bin/ssh -S none -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no’ --out-format=‘\<\>%i %n%L’ "/Users/wd/work/vata\_nodejs/node\_modules/" "host1:/tmp/node\_modules/"”,  
“msg”: “”,  
“rc”: 0,  
“stdout\_lines”:   
}

But if I set ‘ansible\_shell\_type=sh’ as blow in inventory file:

[dev]  
host1

[dev:vars]  
ansible\_shell\_type=sh

And then use command below to test:

$ ansible -i dev -m synchronize -a “src=node\_modules/ dest=/tmp/node\_modules/” dev  
host1 | FAILED! =\> {  
“failed”: true,  
“msg”: “Invalid shell type specified (zsh), or the plugin for that shell type is missing.”  
}

It seems the settings I added not work, am I made some misunderstand about the host vars ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johannes\_Kastl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Johannes\_Kastl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Johannes_Kastl)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/settings-for-ansible-shell-type-in-inventory-file-not-work/21227/2 "2016-05-03T19:45:02Z")

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^^^^^^^

Is this just a typo in your mail? Before you use '... -i hosts ...',  
maybe this leads to your error?

Johannes