ansible-inventory(1)

ansible-inventory1

Show ansible inventory information, by default it uses the inventory script json format

Usage

usage: ansible-inventory [-h] [--version] [-v] [-i INVENTORY] [-l SUBSET]

usage: ansible-inventory [-h] [--version] [-v] [-i INVENTORY] [-l SUBSET] [--flush-cache] [--vault-id VAULT_IDS] [{-J | --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES}] [--playbook-dir BASEDIR] [-e EXTRA_VARS] [--list] [--host HOST] [--graph] [-y] [--toml] [--vars] [--export] [--output OUTPUT_FILE] [group]

Overview

used to display or dump the configured inventory as Ansible sees it

Options

The name of a group in the inventory, relevant when using --graph

--export

When doing --list, represent in a way that is optimized for export,not as an accurate representation of how Ansible has processed it

--flush-cache

clear the fact cache for every host in inventory

--graph

create inventory graph, if supplying pattern it must be a valid group name. It will ignore limit

--host 'HOST'

Output specific host info, works as inventory script. It will ignore limit

--list

Output all hosts info, works as inventory script

--output 'OUTPUT_FILE'

When doing --list, send the inventory to a file instead of to the screen

--playbook-dir 'BASEDIR'

Since this tool does not use playbooks, use this as a substitute playbook directory. This sets the relative path for many features including roles/ group_vars/ etc.

--toml

Use TOML format instead of default JSON, ignored for --graph

--vars

Add vars to graph display, ignored unless used with --graph

--vault-id

the vault identity to use. This argument may be specified multiple times.

--vault-password-file, --vault-pass-file

vault password file

--version

show program's version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit

-J, --ask-vault-password, --ask-vault-pass

ask for vault password

-e, --extra-vars

set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-h, --help

show this help message and exit

-i, --inventory, --inventory-file

specify inventory host path or comma separated host list. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-l 'SUBSET', --limit 'SUBSET'

further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern

-v, --verbose

Causes Ansible to print more debug messages. Adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. A reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-y, --yaml

Use YAML format instead of default JSON, ignored for --graph

Arguments

group

The name of a group in the inventory, relevant when using --graph

Inventory

Ansible stores the hosts it can potentially operate on in an inventory. This can be an YAML file, ini-like file, a script, directory, list, etc. For additional options, see the documentation on <https://docs.ansible.com/>.

Environment

The following environment variables may be specified.

ANSIBLE_INVENTORY -- Override the default ansible inventory sources

ANSIBLE_CONFIG -- Specify override location for the ansible config file

Many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg

For a full list check <https://docs.ansible.com/>. or use the ansible-config command.

Files

/etc/ansible/hosts -- Default inventory file

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg -- Config file, used if present

~/.ansible.cfg -- User config file, overrides the default config if present

./ansible.cfg -- Local config file (in current working directory) assumed to be 'project specific' and overrides the rest if present.

As mentioned above, the ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable will override all others.

Releases

5 releases since Debian 10 (Buster); the text changed 4 times.

  1. 10
  2. 11
  3. 12
  4. 13
  5. Arch

--ask-vault-password since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --extra-vars since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --flush-cache since Debian 13 (Trixie); --limit since Debian 13 (Trixie); --output since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --toml since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --vault-pass-file since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -J since Debian 13 (Trixie); -e since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -l since Debian 13 (Trixie).

--list-hosts until Debian 11 (Bullseye).

Author

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan.

From ansible-core 2.21.5-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.