Merge pull request #2508 from tgerla/devel

Add some examples for local_action and rsync

docsite/rst/playbooks2.rst

@@ -888,8 +888,9 @@ a good idea::
         delegate_to: 127.0.0.1
 
 
-Here is the same playbook as above, but using the shorthand syntax,
+These commands will run on 127.0.0.1, which is the machine running Ansible. There is also a shorthand syntax that 
-'local_action', for delegating to 127.0.0.1::
+you can use on a per-task basis: 'local_action'. Here is the same playbook as above, but using the shorthand 
+syntax for delegating to 127.0.0.1::
 
     ---
     # ...
@@ -902,6 +903,18 @@ Here is the same playbook as above, but using the shorthand syntax,
       - name: add back to load balancer pool
         local_action: command /usr/bin/add_back_to_pool $inventory_hostname
 
+A common pattern is to use a local action to call 'rsync' to recursively copy files to the managed servers.
+Here is an example::
+
+    ---
+    # ...
+      tasks:
+      - name: recursively copy files from management server to target
+        local_action: command rsync -a /path/to/files $inventory_hostname:/path/to/target/
+
+Note that you must have passphrase-less SSH keys or an ssh-agent configured for this to work, otherwise rsync
+will need to ask for a passphrase.
+
 Fireball Mode
 `````````````
 

library/copy

@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ examples:
    - code: "copy: src=/mine/ntp.conf dest=/etc/ntp.conf owner=root group=root mode=644 backup=yes"
      description: "Copy a new C(ntp.conf) file into place, backing up the original if it differs from the copied version"
 author: Michael DeHaan
+notes:
+   - The "copy" module can't be used to recursively copy directory structures to the target machine. Please see the 
+     "Delegation" section of the Advanced Playbooks documentation for a better approach to recursive copies.
 '''
 
 def main():