From be6feee05858151a89a1755ea0f5a21547dd9e38 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joshua Lund Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 16:09:18 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] Minor cleanup of YAML Syntax documentation --- docsite/latest/rst/YAMLSyntax.rst | 24 ++++++++++++------------ 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/docsite/latest/rst/YAMLSyntax.rst b/docsite/latest/rst/YAMLSyntax.rst index ce15390bd3d..3230a39f244 100644 --- a/docsite/latest/rst/YAMLSyntax.rst +++ b/docsite/latest/rst/YAMLSyntax.rst @@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ YAML Syntax This page provides a basic overview of correct YAML syntax, which is how Ansible playbooks (our configuration management language) are expressed. -We use YAML because it is easier to read and write for humans than other common -data formats like XML or JSON. Further, there are libraries available for reading -and writing YAML in most programming languages. +We use YAML because it is easier for humans to read and write than other common +data formats like XML or JSON. Further, there are libraries available in most +programming languages for working with YAML. You may also wish to read :doc:`playbooks` at the same time to see how this is used in practice. @@ -15,14 +15,14 @@ is used in practice. YAML Basics ----------- -For `ansible`, nearly every YAML file starts with a list. +For Ansible, nearly every YAML file starts with a list. Each item in the list is a list of key/value pairs, commonly called a "hash" or a "dictionary". So, we need to know how to write lists and dictionaries in YAML. There's another small quirk to YAML. All YAML files (regardless of their association with -`ansible` or not) should start with ``---``. This is just a YAML -format thing that means "this is the start of a document". +Ansible or not) should begin with ``---``. This is part of the YAML +format and indicates the start of a document. All members of a list are lines beginning at the same indentation level starting with a ``-`` (dash) character:: @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ boolean value (true/false) in several forms:: likes_emacs: TRUE uses_cvs: false -Let's combine what we learned so far in an arbitary YAML example. This really +Let's combine what we learned so far in an arbitrary YAML example. This really has nothing to do with Ansible, but will give you a feel for the format:: --- @@ -76,16 +76,16 @@ has nothing to do with Ansible, but will give you a feel for the format:: - Mango languages: ruby: Elite - python: Elite - dotnet: Lame + python: Elite + dotnet: Lame -That's all you really need to know about YAML to get started writing +That's all you really need to know about YAML to start writing `Ansible` playbooks. Gotchas ------- -While YAML is generally friendly, the following is going to be a YAML syntax error: +While YAML is generally friendly, the following is going to result in a YAML syntax error: foo: somebody said I should put a colon here: so I did @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ You will want to quote any hash values using colons, like so: And then the colon will be preserved. Further, Ansible uses "{{ var }}" for variables. If a value after a colon starts -with a "{", YAML will think it a dictionary, so you must quote it, like so:: +with a "{", YAML will think it is a dictionary, so you must quote it, like so:: foo: "{{ variable }}"