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  <div class="section" id="using-the-python-api">
<h1>Using the Python API<a class="headerlink" href="#using-the-python-api" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The Python API is very powerful, and is how the ansible CLI and ansible-playbook
are implemented.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s pretty simple:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">ansible.runner</span>

<span class="n">runner</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ansible</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">runner</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Runner</span><span class="p">(</span>
   <span class="n">module_name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;ping&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
   <span class="n">module_args</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
   <span class="n">pattern</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;web*&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
   <span class="n">forks</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">10</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">datastructure</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">runner</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">run</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The run method returns results per host, grouped by whether they
could be contacted or not.  Return types are module specific, as
expressed in the &#8216;ansible-modules&#8217; documentation.:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>{
    "dark" : {
       "web1.example.com" : "failure message"
    }
    "contacted" : {
       "web2.example.com" : 1
    }
}</pre>
</div>
<p>A module can return any type of JSON data it wants, so Ansible can
be used as a framework to rapidly build powerful applications and scripts.</p>
<div class="section" id="detailed-api-example">
<h2>Detailed API Example<a class="headerlink" href="#detailed-api-example" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The following script prints out the uptime information for all hosts:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c">#!/usr/bin/python</span>

<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">ansible.runner</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">sys</span>

<span class="c"># construct the ansible runner and execute on all hosts</span>
<span class="n">results</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ansible</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">runner</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Runner</span><span class="p">(</span>
    <span class="n">pattern</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;*&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">forks</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span>
    <span class="n">module_name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;command&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">module_args</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;/usr/bin/uptime&#39;</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">run</span><span class="p">()</span>

<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">results</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">:</span>
   <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;No hosts found&quot;</span>
   <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">exit</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;UP ***********&quot;</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">results</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;contacted&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">items</span><span class="p">():</span>
    <span class="k">if</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="s">&#39;failed&#39;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"> &gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;stdout&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>

<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;FAILED *******&quot;</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">results</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;contacted&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">items</span><span class="p">():</span>
    <span class="k">if</span> <span class="s">&#39;failed&#39;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"> &gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;msg&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>

<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;DOWN *********&quot;</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">results</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;dark&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">items</span><span class="p">():</span>
    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"> &gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">hostname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Advanced programmers may also wish to read the source to ansible itself, for
it uses the Runner() API (with all available options) to implement the
command line tools <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ansible</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ansible-playbook</span></tt>.</p>
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