Document ansible facts

modules.html

@@ -455,19 +455,83 @@ Call this once before using the <a class="reference internal" href="#template"><
 will execute this module automatically as the first step in each play
 using the variables section, so it is unnecessary to make explicit
 calls to setup within a playbook.</p>
+<p>Ansible provides may &#8216;facts&#8217; about the system, automatically.</p>
+<p>Some of the variables that are supplied are listed below.  These in particular
+are from a VMWare Fusion 4 VM running CentOS 6.2:</p>
+<div class="highlight-python"><pre>"ansible_architecture": "x86_64",
+"ansible_distribution": "CentOS",
+"ansible_distribution_release": "Final",
+"ansible_distribution_version": "6.2",
+"ansible_eth0": {
+    "ipv4": {
+        "address": "REDACTED",
+        "netmask": "255.255.255.0"
+    },
+    "ipv6": [
+        {
+            "address": "REDACTED",
+            "prefix": "64",
+            "scope": "link"
+        }
+    ],
+    "macaddress": "REDACTED"
+},
+"ansible_form_factor": "Other",
+"ansible_fqdn": "localhost.localdomain",
+"ansible_hostname": "localhost",
+"ansible_interfaces": [
+    "lo",
+    "eth0"
+],
+"ansible_kernel": "2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64",
+"ansible_lo": {
+    "ipv4": {
+        "address": "127.0.0.1",
+        "netmask": "255.0.0.0"
+    },
+    "ipv6": [
+        {
+            "address": "::1",
+            "prefix": "128",
+            "scope": "host"
+        }
+    ],
+"ansible_machine": "x86_64",
+"ansible_memfree_mb": 89,
+"ansible_memtotal_mb": 993,
+"ansible_processor": [
+    "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2677M CPU @ 1.80GHz"
+],
+"ansible_processor_cores": "NA",
+"ansible_processor_count": 1,
+"ansible_product_name": "VMware Virtual Platform",
+"ansible_product_serial": "REDACTED",
+"ansible_product_uuid": "REDACTED",
+"ansible_product_version": "None",
+"ansible_python_version": "2.6.6",
+"ansible_product_version": "None",
+"ansible_python_version": "2.6.6",
+"ansible_ssh_host_key_dsa_public": REDACTED",
+"ansible_ssh_host_key_rsa_public": "REDACTED",
+"ansible_swapfree_mb": 1822,
+"ansible_swaptotal_mb": 2015,
+"ansible_system": "Linux",
+"ansible_system_vendor": "VMware, Inc.",
+"ansible_virtualization_role": "None",
+"ansible_virtualization_type": "None",</pre>
+</div>
+<p>More ansible facts will be added with successive releases.</p>
 <p>If facter or ohai are installed, variables from these programs will
 also be snapshotted into the JSON file for usage in templating. These
 variables are prefixed with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">facter_</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ohai_</span></tt> so it&#8217;s easy to
-tell their source.  Ansible also provides it&#8217;s own &#8216;facts&#8217; about the
-remote system, which are prefixed with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ansible_</span></tt>.  All variables are
-then bubbled up to the caller.  Using the ansible facts and chosing
+tell their source.</p>
+<p>All variables are bubbled up to the caller.  Using the ansible facts and chosing
 to not install facter and ohai means you can avoid ruby-dependencies
 on your remote systems.</p>
 <p><em>anything</em>:</p>
 <blockquote>
 <div><ul class="simple">
-<li>Any other parameters can be named basically anything, and set a
-<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">key=value</span></tt> pair in the JSON file for use in templating.</li>
+<li>Any other parameters can be named basically anything, and set a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">key=value</span></tt> pair in the JSON file for use in templating.</li>
 </ul>
 </div></blockquote>
 <p>Example action from Ansible <a class="reference internal" href="playbooks.html"><em>Playbooks</em></a>:</p>

rst/modules.rst

@@ -351,19 +351,87 @@ will execute this module automatically as the first step in each play
 using the variables section, so it is unnecessary to make explicit
 calls to setup within a playbook.
 
+Ansible provides may 'facts' about the system, automatically.
+
+Some of the variables that are supplied are listed below.  These in particular
+are from a VMWare Fusion 4 VM running CentOS 6.2::
+
+    "ansible_architecture": "x86_64",
+    "ansible_distribution": "CentOS",
+    "ansible_distribution_release": "Final",
+    "ansible_distribution_version": "6.2",
+    "ansible_eth0": {
+        "ipv4": {
+            "address": "REDACTED",
+            "netmask": "255.255.255.0"
+        },
+        "ipv6": [
+            {
+                "address": "REDACTED",
+                "prefix": "64",
+                "scope": "link"
+            }
+        ],
+        "macaddress": "REDACTED"
+    },
+    "ansible_form_factor": "Other",
+    "ansible_fqdn": "localhost.localdomain",
+    "ansible_hostname": "localhost",
+    "ansible_interfaces": [
+        "lo",
+        "eth0"
+    ],
+    "ansible_kernel": "2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64",
+    "ansible_lo": {
+        "ipv4": {
+            "address": "127.0.0.1",
+            "netmask": "255.0.0.0"
+        },
+        "ipv6": [
+            {
+                "address": "::1",
+                "prefix": "128",
+                "scope": "host"
+            }
+        ],
+    "ansible_machine": "x86_64",
+    "ansible_memfree_mb": 89,
+    "ansible_memtotal_mb": 993,
+    "ansible_processor": [
+        "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2677M CPU @ 1.80GHz"
+    ],
+    "ansible_processor_cores": "NA",
+    "ansible_processor_count": 1,
+    "ansible_product_name": "VMware Virtual Platform",
+    "ansible_product_serial": "REDACTED",
+    "ansible_product_uuid": "REDACTED",
+    "ansible_product_version": "None",
+    "ansible_python_version": "2.6.6",
+    "ansible_product_version": "None",
+    "ansible_python_version": "2.6.6",
+    "ansible_ssh_host_key_dsa_public": REDACTED",
+    "ansible_ssh_host_key_rsa_public": "REDACTED",
+    "ansible_swapfree_mb": 1822,
+    "ansible_swaptotal_mb": 2015,
+    "ansible_system": "Linux",
+    "ansible_system_vendor": "VMware, Inc.",
+    "ansible_virtualization_role": "None",
+    "ansible_virtualization_type": "None",
+
+More ansible facts will be added with successive releases.
+
 If facter or ohai are installed, variables from these programs will
 also be snapshotted into the JSON file for usage in templating. These
 variables are prefixed with ``facter_`` and ``ohai_`` so it's easy to
-tell their source.  Ansible also provides it's own 'facts' about the
-remote system, which are prefixed with ``ansible_``.  All variables are 
-then bubbled up to the caller.  Using the ansible facts and chosing
+tell their source.  
+
+All variables are bubbled up to the caller.  Using the ansible facts and chosing
 to not install facter and ohai means you can avoid ruby-dependencies
 on your remote systems.
 
 *anything*:
 
- * Any other parameters can be named basically anything, and set a
-   ``key=value`` pair in the JSON file for use in templating.
+ * Any other parameters can be named basically anything, and set a ``key=value`` pair in the JSON file for use in templating.
 
 Example action from Ansible :doc:`playbooks`::