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authorized_key - Adds or removes an SSH authorized key

Synopsis

  • Adds or removes SSH authorized keys for particular user accounts

Options

parameter required default choices comments
comment
(added in 2.4)
 no None
Change the comment on the public key. Rewriting the comment is useful in cases such as fetching it from GitHub or GitLab.
If no comment is specified, the existing comment will be kept.
exclusive
(added in 1.9)
 no no
  • yes
  • no
Whether to remove all other non-specified keys from the authorized_keys file. Multiple keys can be specified in a single key string value by separating them by newlines.
This option is not loop aware, so if you use with_ , it will be exclusive per iteration of the loop, if you want multiple keys in the file you need to pass them all to key in a single batch as mentioned above.
key
 yes
The SSH public key(s), as a string or (since 1.9) url (https://github.com/username.keys)
key_options
(added in 1.4)
 no
A string of ssh key options to be prepended to the key in the authorized_keys file
manage_dir
 no yes
  • yes
  • no
Whether this module should manage the directory of the authorized key file. If set, the module will create the directory, as well as set the owner and permissions of an existing directory. Be sure to set manage_dir=no if you are using an alternate directory for authorized_keys, as set with path, since you could lock yourself out of SSH access. See the example below.
path
 no (homedir)+/.ssh/authorized_keys
Alternate path to the authorized_keys file
state
 no present
  • present
  • absent
Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file
user
 yes
The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified
validate_certs
(added in 2.1)
 no yes
  • yes
  • no
This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to no, the SSL certificates will not be validated.
This should only set to no used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates as it avoids verifying the source site.
Prior to 2.1 the code worked as if this was set to yes.

Examples

- name: Set authorized key took from file
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

- name: Set authorized key took from url
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/charlie.keys

- name: Set authorized key in alternate location
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    path: /etc/ssh/authorized_keys/charlie
    manage_dir: False

- name: Set up multiple authorized keys
  authorized_key:
    user: deploy
    state: present
    key: '{{ item }}'
  with_file:
    - public_keys/doe-jane
    - public_keys/doe-john

- name: Set authorized key defining key options
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    key_options: 'no-port-forwarding,from="10.0.1.1"'

- name: Set authorized key without validating the TLS/SSL certificates
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/user.keys
    validate_certs: False

- name: Set authorized key, removing all the authorized key already set
  authorized_key:
    user: root
    key: '{{ item }}'
    state: present
    exclusive: True
  with_file:
    - public_keys/doe-jane

- name: Set authorized key for user ubuntu copying it from current user
  authorized_key:
    user: ubuntu
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', lookup('env','HOME') + '/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here Return Values, the following are the fields unique to this module:

name description returned type sample
exclusive
If the key has been forced to be exclusive or not.
 success boolean False
key_option
Key options related to the key.
 success string None
state
Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file
 success string present
user
The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified
 success string user
key
The key that the module was running against.
 success string https://github.com/user.keys
path
Alternate path to the authorized_keys file
 success string None
unique
Whether the key is unique
 success boolean False
validate_certs
This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to no, the SSL certificates will not be validated.
 success boolean True
keyfile
Path for authorized key file.
 success string /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys
manage_dir
Whether this module managed the directory of the authorized key file.
 success boolean True

Status

This module is flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

Maintenance Info

For more information about Red Hat’s this support of this module, please refer to this knowledge base article<https://access.redhat.com/articles/rhel-top-support-policies>

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, Testing Ansible and Developing Modules.

© 2012–2017 Michael DeHaan
© 2017 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/authorized_key_module.html