Skip to main content

Raymii.org Raymii.org Logo

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Home | About | All pages | Cluster Status | RSS Feed

Ansible - add apt_key inline

Published: 19-04-2018 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article


❗ This post is over five years old. It may no longer be up to date. Opinions may have changed.

Table of Contents


Using the apt key module one can add an APT key with ansible. You can get the key from a remote server or from a file, or just a key ID. I got the request to do some stuff on a machine which was quite rescricted (so no HKP protocol) and I was asked not to place to many files on the machine. The apt key was needed but it could not be a file, so using a YAML Literal Block Scalar I was able to add the key inline in the playbook. Not the best way to do it, but one of the many ways Ansible allows it.

Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below:

I'm developing an open source monitoring app called Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!

Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.

You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days.

Literal Block Scalar

In the Ansible documentation we find the Literal Block Scalar:

Values can span multiple lines using | or >. Spanning multiple lines using a "Literal Block Scalar" | will include the newlines and any trailing spaces.

Since it's still YAML you do need to have the indentation correct.

Example

In my case it is a playbook for MediaWiki, here's the code:

- name: Ubuntu | Configuration | Add mediawiki apt key
  apt_key:
    data: |
      -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
      Version: SKS 1.1.6
      Comment: Hostname: keyserver.ubuntu.com

      mQINBFeYfNABEAC6licKZEtY8NbvlDg5l49r3MBksYJ4ggcUQfScLJj8xUZ5Dyqnmw9uPuzr
      ct4sT/MSuVYE1I8fiWGL2SdjFaVMk7Vao7QFWUj+WLenOg2jLOwoOGRGdqaeMeH4/q71KqPA
      VyHeDOfyHg+Wuhy4Z7whHDVXpebP6iP6yGfl6XlTyayUqS9C7vqhidAQ4y7mg6NFlAIiuRr8
      ilkPOz4dQhLvOxlbUEDcOcVANHUQQ7AMKMsA9kGcFZd1fhccjlc3LAkPWDlsUENqHpD9b93+
      /UkKju3dMOZEOWUrMHxqmGCj3F85QxRqz370MEurq76PhxbbQ3y/U2sG/ge+LxGbqNIytSMt
      Nc37XNV5wMYIB04WzkCOuQnzvN6egVoeX50OcrCPi7d90UznSRbiBmR/BL2p9J+uP8cdz0Tu
      UH3I/Ddou/To1l5LibhT4lO1NGjefRDV41fpy+GDZ4QDxeK8au7xsJxrU1f8oGUn9qLSAbZa
      od4gpfRU/94ayfokf6UiYEkx5JJAzAW+ew7/+85FWKFxn8pymaYD5jtvGVeD7HTv5opBrjvx
      4hUElh8drt/VufBQxJCNwvNn75CoJfQjhResNqA0S6Dh7UqAPGpcOlo++7N4bXMqEBcIgaXO
      Q0+PhH/cvwlmR22rSIIVSAb8eWtkujWe7X2R+VjbaUHfjIxMfQARAQABtD5NZWRpYVdpa2kg
      cmVsZWFzZXMgcmVwb3NpdG9yeSA8d2lraXRlY2gtbEBsaXN0cy53aWtpbWVkaWEub3JnPokC
      PgQTAQIAKAUCV5h80AIbAwUJBWhHAAYLCQgHAwIGFQgCCQoLBBYCAwECHgECF4AACgkQkOn4
      PyIlDdeyDRAAo1NNx8dGoet6MuPnu6XgAXZUIDDi2VXTMGCz88gPOZFhOmd991enKpIDowb8
      wLf93Hr0Ery5vYWUmQ9T5y3wp771JfvZ2ZzrIgGgZ9Gru9PswrPQfDp6HYuAHqy3Tez8VRFf
      dBYXT3W2bb5t0VCD+dcKaR3vgiXV9Rt0ol/FWVNgoXkBaY234hesveEOUOwuJng6mK5t1qkZ
      BB7nJRuclZOCeG19UamaVpDZwEg6g2q/e3SnNJf0YfjzKwMAx0kwhggkHc/kpMuN3rfi61F9
      1fmXrw2teV/1SlDSmFQdslmYrlQDowXaTU0OOU7bGSOUpeVfmIK8vs10i1/2xNRn7ipYzpre
      kEn8hROYPPnqb801xMWO0vBqBwEnNIpHpb/72UMkYG4NuvpjQ7Ubj86bWm6C8GQvqpNHC3oU
      yuiZYi8OXrg+kZBfEK/X3OuuE1P9oKsZ4PYfIgRRDZtuS2Prgme2zuSf6hSHf5h7WWYXtB1f
      sCOcjnHbbh6UjWRbr1Vl3EWd7lupiPODClkDhExKK/VM2KKLjU5UfRPZfWxOLspoJ8dfIDix
      hNxhmVRAU9Z3AhJUtCsmOvSIhzGhZwwm35B4r+rlZnsVtuLj9Bjs0jouwc1pqSKMAqQmO0gZ
      yg9N3k2tRxDorAM0S2i0FaLfsM0aovmahbb7lqYTVmmZvmc=
      =svAF
      -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
  tags:
    - mediawiki

- name: Ubuntu | Configuration | add mediawiki apt repo
  apt_repository:
    repo: deb https://releases.wikimedia.org/debian jessie-mediawiki main
    state: present
  tags:
    - mediawiki

If you do not have the indentation correct, like this:

- name: Ubuntu | Configuration | Add mediawiki apt key
  apt_key:
    data: |
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: SKS 1.1.6
Comment: Hostname: keyserver.ubuntu.com

mQINBFeYfNABEAC6licKZEtY8NbvlDg5l49r3MBksYJ4ggcUQfScLJj8xUZ5Dyqnmw9uPuzr
ct4sT/MSuVYE1I8fiWGL2SdjFaVMk7Vao7QFWUj+WLenOg2jLOwoOGRGdqaeMeH4/q71KqPA
VyHeDOfyHg+Wuhy4Z7whHDVXpebP6iP6yGfl6XlTyayUqS9C7vqhidAQ4y7mg6NFlAIiuRr8

Ansible will complain and fail:

ERROR! Syntax Error while loading YAML.
  could not find expected ':'

The error appears to have been in '[...]roles/mediawiki/tasks/main.yml': line 8, column 1, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: SKS 1.1.6
^ here
Tags: ansible , apt , mediawiki , python , snippets , ubuntu