password – retrieve or generate a random password, stored in a file

• Synopsis
• Parameters
• Notes
• Examples
• Return Values
• Status

Synopsis

• Generates a random plaintext password and stores it in a file at a given filepath.
• If the file exists previously, it will retrieve its contents, behaving just like with_file.
• Usage of variables like "{{ inventory_hostname }}" in the filepath can be used to set up random passwords per host, which simplifies password management in "host_vars" variables.
• A special case is using /dev/null as a path. The password lookup will generate a new random password each time, but will not write it to /dev/null. This can be used when you need a password without storing it on the controller.

Parameters

Notes

Examples

- name: create a mysql user with a random password
  mysql_user:
    name: "{{ client }}"
    password: "{{ lookup('password', 'credentials/' + client + '/' + tier + '/' + role + '/mysqlpassword length=15') }}"
    priv: "{{ client }}_{{ tier }}_{{ role }}.*:ALL"

- name: create a mysql user with a random password using only ascii letters
  mysql_user:
    name: "{{ client }}"
    password: "{{ lookup('password', '/tmp/passwordfile chars=ascii_letters') }}"
    priv: '{{ client }}_{{ tier }}_{{ role }}.*:ALL'

- name: create a mysql user with an 8 character random password using only digits
  mysql_user:
    name: "{{ client }}"
    password: "{{ lookup('password', '/tmp/passwordfile length=8 chars=digits') }}"
    priv: "{{ client }}_{{ tier }}_{{ role }}.*:ALL"

- name: create a mysql user with a random password using many different char sets
  mysql_user:
    name: "{{ client }}"
    password: "{{ lookup('password', '/tmp/passwordfile chars=ascii_letters,digits,hexdigits,punctuation') }}"
    priv: "{{ client }}_{{ tier }}_{{ role }}.*:ALL"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this lookup:

Status

• This lookup is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
• This lookup is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

Authors

• Daniel Hokka Zakrisson <daniel@hozac.com>
• Javier Candeira <javier@candeira.com>
• Maykel Moya <mmoya@speedyrails.com>