.. contents:: Topics


Connection Plugins
------------------

Connection plugins allow Ansible to connect to the target hosts so it can execute tasks on them. Ansible ships with many connection plugins, but only one can be used per host at a time.

By default, Ansible ships with several plugins. The most commonly used are the 'paramiko' SSH, native ssh (just called 'ssh'), and 'local' connection types.  All of these can be used in playbooks and with /usr/bin/ansible to decide how you want to talk to remote machines.  

The basics of these connection types are covered in the :doc:`../intro_getting_started` section.  


.. contents:: Topics

.. _ssh_plugins:

ssh Plugins
+++++++++++

Because ssh is the default protocol used in system administration and the protocol most used in Ansible, ssh options are included in the command line tools. See :doc:`../ansible-playbook` for more details.


.. _using_connection_plugins:

Using Connection Plugins
++++++++++++++++++++++++

The transport can be changed via :doc:`configuration <../config>`, in the command line (``-c``, ``--connection``), as a keyword (:ref:`connection`)
in your play or by setting the a connection variable (:ref:`ansible_connection`), most often, in your inventory.
For example, for windows machines you might want o use the :doc:`winrm <connection/winrm>` plugin instead.

Most connection plugins can operate with a minimum configuration. By default they use the :ref:`inventory_hostname` and defaults to find the target host.

Plugins are self-documenting. Each plugin should document its configuration options. The following are connection variables common to most connection plugins:

:ref:ansible_host
    The name of the host to connect to, if different from the :ref:`inventory_hostname`.
:ref:ansible_port
    The ssh port number. For :doc:`ssh <connection/ssh>` and :doc:`paramiko <connection/paramiko>` the default value is 22.
:ref:ansible_user
    The default user name to use for log in. Most plugins default to the current user running Ansible.

Each plugin might also have a specific version of a variable that overrides the general version. For example, :ref:`ansible_ssh_host` for the :doc:`ssh <connection/ssh>` plugin.

Enabling Connection Plugins
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can extend Ansible to support other transports (such as SNMP or message bus) by dropping a custom plugin
into the ``connection_plugins`` directory.

Plugin List
+++++++++++

You can use ``ansible-doc -t connection -l`` to see the list of available plugins.
Use ``ansible-doc -t connection <plugin name>`` to see detailed documentation and examples.


.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1
    :glob:

    connection/*


.. seealso::

   :doc:`../playbooks`
       An introduction to playbooks
   :doc:`callback`
       Ansible callback plugins
   :doc:`../playbooks_filters`
       Jinja2 filter plugins
   :doc:`../playbooks_tests`
       Jinja2 test plugins
   :doc:`../playbooks_lookups`
       Jinja2 lookup plugins
   :doc:`vars`
       Ansible vars plugins
   `User Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_
       Have a question?  Stop by the google group!
   `irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
       #ansible IRC chat channel