# ssh difference between ansible ad-hoc and ansible-playbook for localhost **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 7, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-difference-between-ansible-ad-hoc-and-ansible-playbook-for-localhost/21951 "2016-07-07T19:03:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Cheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anthony\_Cheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anthony_Cheng)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-difference-between-ansible-ad-hoc-and-ansible-playbook-for-localhost/21951/1 "2016-07-07T19:03:48Z")
I noticed in troubleshooting SSH authentication that there is a difference between ansible ad-hoc and ansible-playbook in terms of SSH for localhost. Specifically, I was able to get a playbook targeted at localhost to work but not ansible ad-hoc command targeted at localhost. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Cheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anthony\_Cheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anthony_Cheng)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-difference-between-ansible-ad-hoc-and-ansible-playbook-for-localhost/21951/2 "2016-07-07T19:08:02Z")
To be more specific, ad-hoc command checks in ~/.ssh/authorized key whereas playbook does not. I didn’t specific any user in the playbook whereas I try to run as root/ubuntu/none with ad-hoc (-u). ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-difference-between-ansible-ad-hoc-and-ansible-playbook-for-localhost/21951/3 "2016-07-07T19:37:59Z")
That sounds really - odd. It sounds silly, but are you \_sure\_ ansible and ansible-playbook are at the same version? ansible --version ansible-playbook --version Maybe there's some symlink spaghetti going on or something?? If not, that sounds like a bug, I'd file an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_Cheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anthony\_Cheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anthony_Cheng)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-difference-between-ansible-ad-hoc-and-ansible-playbook-for-localhost/21951/4 "2016-07-07T20:56:17Z")
Apparently ansible-playbook is a symlink on this system; I had /usr/bin/ansible owned by the group ansible before but I changed it back to root for testing & got so result. What is more weird is that if ansible-playbook is just a symlink why is the behavior different? ` root@ip-172-17-0-237:/etc/ansible# ansible --version ansible 2.1.0.0 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = Default w/o overrides root@ip-172-17-0-237:/etc/ansible# ansible-playbook --version ansible-playbook 2.1.0.0 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = Default w/o overrides root@ip-172-17-0-237:/etc/ansible# ll /usr/bin/ansible -rwxr-xr-x 1 root ansible 4201 May 25 13:03 /usr/bin/ansible\* root@ip-172-17-0-237:/etc/ansible# ll /usr/bin/ansible-playbook lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 May 25 13:03 /usr/bin/ansible-playbook → ansible\* ` I checked on another older version and ansible-playbook is a script: ` ✘ antho@stratus  ~/.ssh  which ansible /usr/bin/ansible antho@stratus  ~/.ssh  which ansible-playbook /usr/bin/ansible-playbook antho@stratus  ~/.ssh  ll /usr/bin/ansible-playbook -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 antho antho 3.9K May 22 23:18 /usr/bin/ansible-playbook antho@stratus  ~/.ssh  ansible --version ansible 2.0.2.0 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = Default w/o overrides antho@stratus  ~/.ssh  ansible-playbook --version ansible-playbook 2.0.2.0 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = Default w/o overrides ` btw here’s the playbook i used for testing; nothing fancy: ` ot@ip-172-17-0-237:/etc/ansible# cat testing/test\_var.yml