Ad‑hoc Commands

Problem – “I need to run a quick check or command on a host without writing a full playbook.”

Solution – Use the ansible command with the -m (module) option.

Use‑case	Command	What it does
Ping a host	`ansible host1 -m ping`	Verifies connectivity.
List services	`ansible host1 -m shell -a 'systemctl list-units --type=service'`	Executes a shell command.
Gather facts	`ansible all -m setup`	Collects system information.
Run playbook file only	`ansible-playbook site.yml`	Executes the full playbook.

Example – Quick package check

ansible web2 -m yum -a "name=nginx state=latest"

Tip

– Add -vv for verbose output to see command execution details.