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ansible.cfg Cheat Sheet

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  1. ANSIBLE_CONFIG env var
  2. ./ansible.cfg
  3. ~/.ansible.cfg
  4. /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

CLI flag > environment variable (ANSIBLE_*) > ansible.cfg value > built-in default.

A Practical Starting Point

[defaults]
inventory = inventories/dev          ; safe default; pass production with -i
remote_user = deploy
forks = 20
interpreter_python = auto_silent
callback_result_format = yaml
host_key_checking = True
force_handlers = True
retry_files_enabled = False

[ssh_connection]
pipelining = True
ssh_args = -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new
control_path_dir = ~/.ansible/cp

[privilege_escalation]
become_method = sudo                 ; opt in per play/task with become: true

ansible-config dump --only-changed   # see what's actually in effect

Full explanation: ansible.cfg · Performance