ssh-ansible 1.2.1

SSH to host from ansible inventory

ansible-ssh

ansible-ssh is a command-line utility that enables SSH connection to a host, utilizing connection variables retrieved from an Ansible inventory file.
It provides user-friendly bash command completion (including completing hosts from Ansible inventory file). It supports connection details (such as host, port, user, key, and password) as well as advanced SSH options like ProxyJump/ProxyCommand for bastion host configurations.

Features

Simply run ansible-ssh <host> (if ansible.cfg exists) or ansible-ssh -i inventory <host>

• Automated Connection Parameters: Extracts connection details from an Ansible inventory.
• ansible.cfg Integration: Automatically detects and uses inventory file from ansible.cfg when present.
• Advanced SSH Options: Supports ProxyJump, ProxyCommand, and other SSH options via ansible_ssh_common_args and ansible_ssh_extra_args.
• Supports Vault Encrypted Passwords Detects vault configuration in ansible.cfg or could be provided via --vault-password-file.
• Fallback Mechanism: Uses standard SSH configuration (e.g., ~/.ssh/config) for any unspecified settings.
• Smart Bash Completion: Auto-completes inventory files from ansible.cfg and host names from your inventory.
• Multiple Inventory Formats: Works with both YAML and INI inventory formats.

Requirements

• Python3
• Ansible: Required for running ansible-inventory.
• sshpass: (Optional) Required for password-based SSH connections.
• bash-completion: This is pretty much 50% of the functionality.
• jq: Required for parsing JSON output in the bash completion script.

Installation

shell

Clone the repository, link/copy somewhere into $PATH, and install bash completion script.

# Probably don't need to install anything, but for the reference...
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git python3 ansible-core sshpass jq bash-completion -y

git clone https://github.com/marekruzicka/ansible-ssh.git
chmod +x ansible-ssh/ansible-ssh.py

# Link/copy somewhere within $PATH eg.:
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin/
ln -s $PWD/ansible-ssh/ansible-ssh.py ~/.local/bin/ansible-ssh

# Generate bash_completion script
ansible-ssh -C bash | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/ansible-ssh
source /etc/bash_completion.d/ansible-ssh

pip

Create or activate virtual env, install it using pip, and install bash completion script.

# Create, activate python virtual environment
virtualenv myvenv
source myvenv/bin/activate

# Install package using pip (yes, pypi package has the name reversed. ansible-ssh is taken :-( )
pip install ansible-core ssh-ansible

# Generate bash_completion script
ansible-ssh -C bash | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/ansible-ssh
source /etc/bash_completion.d/ansible-ssh

Usage

$ ansible-ssh --help
usage: ansible-ssh [-h] [-C {bash}] [-i INVENTORY] [host] [--print-only] [-v]

Connect to a host using connection variables from an Ansible inventory.

positional arguments:
  host                  Host to connect to

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -C, --complete {bash}
                        Print bash completion script and exit
  -i, --inventory INVENTORY
                        Path to the Ansible inventory file
  --vault-password-file FILE
                        Vault password file (overrides ansible.cfg vault_password_file)
  --print-only          Print SSH command instead of executing it
  -v, --verbose         Increase SSH verbosity, stackable up to -vvv
  --version             show program's version number and exit

EXAMPLES:
  Connect to a host:
         ansible-ssh.py -i inventory myhost

  Connect to a host with ssh verbosity:
         ansible-ssh.py -i inventory myhost -vv

  Print SSH command:
         ansible-ssh.py -i inventory myhost --print-only

  Generate and install bash completion script:
         ansible-ssh -C bash | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/ansible-ssh

ansible.cfg Integration

ansible-ssh automatically detects and uses inventory configuration from ansible.cfg files, following Ansible's standard configuration hierarchy:

1. $ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable
2. ./ansible.cfg (current directory)
3. ~/.ansible.cfg (user home directory)
4. /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg (system-wide)

Example Configuration

# ansible.cfg
[defaults]
inventory = ./hosts.ini

With this configuration, you can simply run:

# No need to specify -i inventory
ansible-ssh myhost

Smart Bash Completion

The bash completion is ansible.cfg-aware:

• When you type ansible-ssh -i <TAB>, it suggests the inventory file from ansible.cfg first
• When no -i is specified, it uses the inventory from ansible.cfg for host completion

# Tab completion suggests ./hosts.ini from ansible.cfg
ansible-ssh -i <TAB>

# Tab completion shows hosts from the configured inventory
ansible-ssh <TAB>