ansible/docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_templating.rst

.. _playbooks_templating:

*******************
Templating (Jinja2)
*******************

Ansible uses Jinja2 templating to enable dynamic expressions and access to variables. Ansible includes a lot of specialized filters and tests for templating. You can use all the standard filters and tests included in Jinja2 as well. Ansible also offers a new plugin type: :ref:`lookup_plugins`.

All templating happens on the Ansible controller **before** the task is sent and executed on the target machine. This approach minimizes the package requirements on the target (jinja2 is only required on the controller). It also limits the amount of data Ansible passes to the target machine. Ansible parses templates on the controller and passes only the information needed for each task to the target machine, instead of passing all the data on the controller and parsing it on the target.

.. contents::
   :local:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   playbooks_filters
   playbooks_tests
   playbooks_lookups
   playbooks_python_version

.. _templating_now:

Get the current time
====================

.. versionadded:: 2.8

The ``now()`` Jinja2 function retrieves a Python datetime object or a string representation for the current time.

The ``now()`` function supports 2 arguments:

utc
  Specify ``True`` to get the current time in UTC. Defaults to ``False``.

fmt
  Accepts a `strftime <https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior>`_ string that returns a formatted date time string.


.. seealso::

   :ref:`playbooks_intro`
       An introduction to playbooks
   :ref:`playbooks_conditionals`
       Conditional statements in playbooks
   :ref:`playbooks_loops`
       Looping in playbooks
   :ref:`playbooks_reuse_roles`
       Playbook organization by roles
   :ref:`playbooks_best_practices`
       Tips and tricks for playbooks
   `User Mailing List <https://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
Updates variables docs: facts examples, headers, links, etc. (#47767) * refreshes ansible facts output and updates some references/headers 6 years ago			`.. _playbooks_templating:`

Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			`*******************`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`Templating (Jinja2)`
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			`*******************`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			Ansible uses Jinja2 templating to enable dynamic expressions and access to variables. Ansible includes a lot of specialized filters and tests for templating. You can use all the standard filters and tests included in Jinja2 as well. Ansible also offers a new plugin type: :ref:`lookup_plugins`.
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			`All templating happens on the Ansible controller before the task is sent and executed on the target machine. This approach minimizes the package requirements on the target (jinja2 is only required on the controller). It also limits the amount of data Ansible passes to the target machine. Ansible parses templates on the controller and passes only the information needed for each task to the target machine, instead of passing all the data on the controller and parsing it on the target.`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			`.. contents::`
			`:local:`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
			`.. toctree::`
			`:maxdepth: 2`

			`playbooks_filters`
			`playbooks_tests`
			`playbooks_lookups`
Add documentation of Jinja2 templating idioms that differ when run under Python3 Fixes #19514 8 years ago			`playbooks_python_version`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time (#43792) * Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time * Docs and changelog * now isn't a lookup, it doesn't need disabled 6 years ago			`.. _templating_now:`

			`Get the current time`
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			`====================`
Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time (#43792) * Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time * Docs and changelog * now isn't a lookup, it doesn't need disabled 6 years ago
			`.. versionadded:: 2.8`

Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			The ``now()`` Jinja2 function retrieves a Python datetime object or a string representation for the current time.
Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time (#43792) * Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time * Docs and changelog * now isn't a lookup, it doesn't need disabled 6 years ago
			The ``now()`` function supports 2 arguments:

			`utc`
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			Specify ``True`` to get the current time in UTC. Defaults to ``False``.
Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time (#43792) * Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time * Docs and changelog * now isn't a lookup, it doesn't need disabled 6 years ago
			`fmt`
Docs: User guide overhaul, part 2 (#65474) 5 years ago			Accepts a `strftime <https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior>`_ string that returns a formatted date time string.
Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time (#43792) * Add now() jinja2 global func for getting the date/time * Docs and changelog * now isn't a lookup, it doesn't need disabled 6 years ago
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago
			`.. seealso::`

removes last :doc: links in user guide (#58433) * removes last :doc: links in user guide 5 years ago			:ref:`playbooks_intro`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`An introduction to playbooks`
removes last :doc: links in user guide (#58433) * removes last :doc: links in user guide 5 years ago			:ref:`playbooks_conditionals`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`Conditional statements in playbooks`
removes last :doc: links in user guide (#58433) * removes last :doc: links in user guide 5 years ago			:ref:`playbooks_loops`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`Looping in playbooks`
removes last :doc: links in user guide (#58433) * removes last :doc: links in user guide 5 years ago			:ref:`playbooks_reuse_roles`
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`Playbook organization by roles`
removes last :doc: links in user guide (#58433) * removes last :doc: links in user guide 5 years ago			:ref:`playbooks_best_practices`
Collections docs generation backport (#70515) * Build documentation for Ansible-2.10 (formerly known as ACD). Builds plugin docs from collections whose source is on galaxy The new command downloads collections from galaxy, then finds the plugins inside of them to get the documentation for those plugins. * Update the python syntax checks * docs builds can now require python 3.6+. * Move plugin formatter code out to an external tool, antsibull-docs. Collection owners want to be able to extract docs for their own websites as well. * The jinja2 filters, tests, and other support code have moved to antsibull * Remove document_plugins as that has now been integrated into antsibull-docs * Cleanup and bugfix to other build script code: * The Commands class needed to have its metaclass set for abstractmethod to work correctly * Fix lint issues in some command plugins * Add the docs/docsite/rst/collections to .gitignore as everything in that directory will be generated so we don't want any of it saved in the git repository * gitignore the build dir and remove edit docs link on module pages * Add docs/rst/collections as a directory to remove on make clean * Split the collections docs from the main docs * remove version and edit on github * remove version banner for just collections * clarify examples need collection keyword defined * Remove references to plugin documentation locations that no longer exist. * Perhaps the pages in plugins/.rst should be deprecated altogether and their content moved? If not, perhaps we want to rephrase and link into the collection documentation? * Or perhaps we want to link to the plugins which are present in collections/ansible/builtin? * Remove PYTHONPATH from the build-ansible calls One of the design goals of the build-ansible.py script was for it to automatically set its library path to include the checkout of ansible and the library of code to implement itself. Because it automatically includes the checkout of ansible, we don't need to set PYTHONPATH in the Makefile any longer. * Create a command to only build ansible-base plugin docs * When building docs for devel, only build the ansible-base docs for now. This is because antsibull needs support for building a "devel tree" of docs. This can be changed once that is implemented * When building docs for the sanity tests, only build the ansible-base plugin docs for now. Those are the docs which are in this repo so that seems appropriate for now. * Docs: User guide overhaul, part 5 (#70307) (cherry picked from commit db354c03002440bbcb286b4897307dbb981d02db) * Need to return any error code from running antsibull-docs (#70763) This way we fail early if there's a problem (cherry picked from commit 1e3989c9f7919cbcfe82733711e13b93c026c2d8) Co-authored-by: Alicia Cozine <879121+acozine@users.noreply.github.com> 4 years ago			`Tips and tricks for playbooks`
Prefer https:// links in the docs site All the changed urls are availible by way of https://. Most of them already redirect. 6 years ago			`User Mailing List <https://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_
Doc fixes (#20353) * cleanup to reflect current builds * consolidate templating docs and minor rewording * new templating intro page * fixed warnings as per feedback * Update playbooks_filters.rst Edited for clarity. * Update playbooks_templating.rst Light edits 8 years ago			`Have a question? Stop by the google group!`
			`irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
			`#ansible IRC chat channel`