Ansible’s real strengths are the fast speed of learning the basics and its simplicity. We all keep some configuration in a GIT service like my dot config files in Github. It is very quick and easy to automate the check out of a repository, and to distribute files from it with the built in Ansible modules.
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We can use the ansible.builtin.git module for cloning a GIT repository. In our case the necessary information for the module are the repo URL, the destination where we want to check out and optionally a git tag or version.
Copying the following code in a playbook will create a great foundation.
- name: Check out my dotfiles repository from Github
ansible.builtin.git:
repo: https://github.com/tmolnar0831/dotfiles.git
dest: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles
version: 4bfbaa2917844a46ab936bddba5125af16c10bca
Then the ansible.builtin.copy module can distribute the files to their designated places. Using the copy module is easy and straightforward.
We have to feed it with the source file to copy, the destination where we want to copy it, a user and group permission to set and the file permissions. In this case the source is on the remote server, so we notify Ansible about it with the remote_src parameter.
The task in our playbook should look like this.
- name: Copy the config files to my home
ansible.builtin.copy:
src: '{{ item.src }}'
dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
owner: tmolnar
group: tmolnar
mode: '0644'
remote_src: true
loop:
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.vimrc, dest: /home/tmolnar/.vimrc }
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.bashrc, dest: /home/tmolnar/.bashrc }
Putting these tasks together and optionally extending the code with our needs we have a playbook that checks out GIT repositories and moves the files from them to their place.
A very basic initial VM config can look like the following playbook.
---
- name: Basic OS and user setup
hosts: all
become_method: ansible.builtin.su
tasks:
- name: Install the basic packages
ansible.builtin.apt:
name:
- vim
- tmux
- python3
- python3-apt
- sshpass
- git
- wget
- curl
state: present
become: true
become_user: root
- name: Check out my dotfiles repository from Github
ansible.builtin.git:
repo: https://github.com/tmolnar0831/dotfiles.git
dest: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles
version: 4bfbaa2917844a46ab936bddba5125af16c10bca
- name: Copy the config files to the root home
ansible.builtin.copy:
src: '{{ item.src }}'
dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0644'
remote_src: true
loop:
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.vimrc, dest: /root/.vimrc }
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.bashrc-root, dest: /root/.bashrc}
become: true
become_user: root
- name: Copy the config files to my home
ansible.builtin.copy:
src: '{{ item.src }}'
dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
owner: tmolnar
group: tmolnar
mode: '0644'
remote_src: true
loop:
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.vimrc, dest: /home/tmolnar/.vimrc }
- { src: /home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.bashrc, dest: /home/tmolnar/.bashrc }
The playbook is idempotent and it configures files in the home of the user and the root. (Note the become keywords in the tasks.)
ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini play-os-base-config.yml --ask-become-pass --limit local
BECOME password:
PLAY [Basic OS and user setup] *****************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *************************************************************************************************************
ok: [local]
TASK [Install the basic packages] **************************************************************************************************
ok: [local]
TASK [Check out my dotfiles repository from Github] ********************************************************************************
ok: [local]
TASK [Copy the config files to the root home] **************************************************************************************
ok: [local] => (item={'src': '/home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.vimrc', 'dest': '/root/.vimrc'})
ok: [local] => (item={'src': '/home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.bashrc-root', 'dest': '/root/.bashrc'})
TASK [Copy the config files to my home] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [local] => (item={'src': '/home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.vimrc', 'dest': '/home/tmolnar/.vimrc'})
ok: [local] => (item={'src': '/home/tmolnar/stuff/dotfiles/.bashrc', 'dest': '/home/tmolnar/.bashrc'})
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************
local : ok=5 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
We have automated some basic GIT handling. This playbook can be separated into a well-functioning role later.
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Tom's IT Cafe 
Although tools like ansible, [chezmoi](https://www.chezmoi.io/) and [homeshick](https://github.com/andsens/homeshick) work, I find that a bare git repo works just fine for my needs.
“`zsh
git init –bare $HOME/.dotfiles
alias config=’/usr/bin/git –git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ –work-tree=$HOME’
config config status.showUntrackedFiles no
config remote add origin git@github.com:svanzoest/dotfiles.git
config branch -M laptop
config push -u origin laptop
“`
where the `~/.dotfiles` directory is a git bare repository. any file within the home folder can be versioned with normal commands like:
“`zsh
config status
config add .vimrc
config commit -m “Add vimrc”
config push
“`
For every device you can create a new branch.
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To the tomsitcafe.com webmaster, You always provide great examples and real-world applications, thank you for your valuable contributions.
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Thank you!
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