# What is free\_form command and cmd parameter in command module **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** ad-hoc\ **Created:** [April 1, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660 "2024-04-01T14:55:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aaron1989041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@aaron1989041](https://forum.ansible.com/u/aaron1989041)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/1 "2024-04-01T14:55:13Z")
1. when using command module " Either a free form command or `cmd` parameter is required". what is “free form command” and “cmd parameter”? 2. when executing `ansible localhost -m command -a "cmd=date"`, nothing happens.but if I put `cmd: date` in a task, it worked. so “cmd parameter” can only be used in playbook but not in ad hoc command？ 3. it there and document about which parameter can’t be used in ad hoc command? ---
**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/2 "2024-04-01T15:09:39Z")
> [@aaron1989041](#): > > out which parameter can’t be used in ad hoc command? none, they should all work as ‘adhoc’ creates a temporary play and task and uses the commands you pass for that ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/3 "2024-04-01T15:39:48Z")
It looks to me like adhoc supports exactly two ways of parsing `-a` values: 1. If the value beings with `{` and ends with `}`, the contents will be parsed as JSON. So `ansible localhost -m command -a '{"cmd": "date"}'` works as expected. 2. Otherwise, `ansible.parsing.splitter.parse_kv()` will be used with `check_raw=True` (since the action is `command`), which only splits off the following parameters: `creates`, `removes`, `chdir`, `executable`, `warn`, `stdin`, `stdin_add_newline`, `strip_empty_ends`. Since `cmd` is not on that list, `cmd=date` will be passed as `_raw_params` on and thus treated as the command to execute. So if you don’t want to provide JSON, you are limited to a small explicit set of parameters you can use for `command` and all other actions in `MODULE_REQUIRE_ARGS`. The current list of actions is `command`, `win_command`, `ansible.windows.win_command`, `shell`, `win_shell`, `ansible.windows.win_shell`, `raw`, `script` (with `ansible.builtin.` and `ansible.legacy.` prepended to everything that has no `.` and also added to the list). For all other actions, the complete `-a` value is split up (as expected). ---
**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/4 "2024-04-01T16:17:40Z")
I had just finished looking into it deeper, but felix already explained the issue. I’ll be adding notes to the ‘module\_require\_args’ modules to warn about this issue. ---
**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/5 "2024-04-01T16:23:37Z")
We also have a fix planned, but it requires many pieces. - controller argspec parsing - modules declare free\_form (attribute)" - use the previous 2 to pass the information to splitter so it knows what are options vs ‘free form’ ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/6 "2024-04-01T19:34:52Z")
Is there a way to specify additional task level keywords and values to ad hoc invocations? Lots of them are covered by specific parameters / options to the `ansible` command itself, but more recent ones like `timeout` don’t have obvious ways to twiddle their knobs. ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/7 "2024-04-01T19:43:29Z")
At least in the case of `timeout`, there’s an env var for config [Ansible Configuration Settings — Ansible Community Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/config.html#task-timeout). `ANSIBLE_TASK_TIMEOUT=10 ansible localhost -m ping` ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/8 "2024-04-01T19:53:45Z")
Ah, true. Yet one more one-off though. It is rather scattered, reflecting the evolutionary nature of the thing. I’m wondering if the “planned fix that requires many pieces” that @bcoca alluded to might address this more generically. But on 2nd thought, it may be easier to throw together a simple one-task playbook than deal with yet more rarely needed/used flags. ---
**Author:** ![aaron1989041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@aaron1989041](https://forum.ansible.com/u/aaron1989041)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/9 "2024-04-02T01:43:33Z")
> [@felixfontein](#): > > a small explicit set of parameters ```auto # ansible localhost -m command -a '{"cmd": "date"}' localhost | FAILED | rc=2 >> [Errno 2] No such file or directory ``` 🥲 ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 4:24am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/10 "2024-04-02T04:24:10Z")
@aaron1989041 which version of ansible-core are you running? I get ```auto localhost | CHANGED | rc=0 >> Tue Apr 2 06:23:38 AM CEST 2024 ``` when running it 🙂 (using the latest ansible-core devel version right now). ---
**Author:** ![aaron1989041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@aaron1989041](https://forum.ansible.com/u/aaron1989041)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 5:36am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/11 "2024-04-02T05:36:12Z")
```auto # ansible --version ansible 2.9.27 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules'] ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible executable location = /usr/bin/ansible python version = 2.7.5 (default, Jun 28 2022, 15:30:04) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)] ``` ---
**Author:** ![aaron1989041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@aaron1989041](https://forum.ansible.com/u/aaron1989041)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 6:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/12 "2024-04-02T06:20:28Z")
```auto # ansible --version ansible 2.9.27 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules'] ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible executable location = /usr/bin/ansible python version = 2.7.5 (default, Jun 28 2022, 15:30:04) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)] ``` ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/13 "2024-04-02T19:13:58Z")
@aaron1989041 please note that Ansible 2.9 is quite old and will have been End of Life for almost two years soon ([Releases and maintenance — Ansible Core Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/devel/reference_appendices/release_and_maintenance.html#ansible-core-support-matrix)). I would assume that this way of passing JSON arguments was only added in a newer version of ansible-base/ansible-core. ---
**Author:** ![jborean](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jborean/32/1525_2.png) [@jborean](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jborean)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/14 "2024-04-02T23:41:34Z")
> I would assume that this way of passing JSON arguments was only added in a newer version of ansible-base/ansible-core. Added in 2.14 [Add support for json in adhoc -a by jborean93 · Pull Request #78114 · ansible/ansible · GitHub](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/78114) (specifically for this use case). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-is-free-form-command-and-cmd-parameter-in-command-module/4660/15 "2024-05-02T23:41:40Z")
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