# Ansible Pull via SSH instead of HTTPS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Linux on Servers\ **Created:** [October 14, 2021, 11:24am UTC](https://community.learnlinux.tv/t/ansible-pull-via-ssh-instead-of-https/988 "2021-10-14T11:24:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![charles](https://community.learnlinux.tv/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@charles](https://community.learnlinux.tv/u/charles)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 11:24am UTC](https://community.learnlinux.tv/t/ansible-pull-via-ssh-instead-of-https/988/1 "2021-10-14T11:24:22Z")
I am watching Jay’s video on [Using Ansible to automate your Laptop and Desktop configs!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIDywsGBqf4) This is really great so far. At ~37:40 Jay issues an `ansible pull` command and uses the HTTPS url from his GitHub repo. I am following along with the tutorial, however I have deviated slightly- I am not using GitHub. I am using an Ubuntu server in my homelab to hold the bare repository and then cloning to my workstation/laptop as needed to perform the actual work. So to summarize- I am trying to `ansible pull` the git repo that is on a local ubuntu server instead of on GitHub. My workstation has SSH Key access to the ubuntu server. I have removed the `-U` flag that Jay uses for URL. I ran `sudo ansible-pull ssh://charles@ubuntu-server:/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git` Ansible rejects this command and provides the man page (I think? Its the help page showing me all the various options & flags) and then has an error message showing: `ERROR! URL for repository not specified, use -h for help` I’m unsure how to use ansible-pull via SSH to local server instead of a URL to GitHub. Based on the [Ansible docs page](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/cli/ansible-pull.html) It looks like I should be able to use SSH as some of the options mention SSH, but I don’t think I need to pass any of those flags? This is the LLTV [Wiki Page](https://wiki.learnlinux.tv/index.php/Using_Ansible_Pull) for the relevant video. Could someone point me in the right direction? ---
**Author:** ![Buffy](https://community.learnlinux.tv/user_avatar/community.learnlinux.tv/buffy/32/497_2.png) [@Buffy](https://community.learnlinux.tv/u/Buffy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://community.learnlinux.tv/t/ansible-pull-via-ssh-instead-of-https/988/2 "2021-10-14T11:57:00Z")
Just for testing, can you use “git clone” with that URL and successfully clone the repo? I’m not real sure about how to access remote git repos outside of GitHub/GitLab as we have GitLab set up locally for our repos. Do you still need that second ‘:’ even if you don’t specify a connection port? Maybe that’s throwing it off? ---
**Author:** ![charles](https://community.learnlinux.tv/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@charles](https://community.learnlinux.tv/u/charles)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://community.learnlinux.tv/t/ansible-pull-via-ssh-instead-of-https/988/3 "2021-10-14T12:35:51Z")
Thank you for the pointers- Performing a git clone was my first test as well. It performs ok, see here: ```auto charles@UbuntuWS:~/Git-repos/ansible-desktop$ git clone charles@ubuntu-server:/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git Cloning into 'ansible-desktop'... remote: Enumerating objects: 6, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done. remote: Total 6 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 Receiving objects: 100% (6/6), done. ``` Yeah I’m not certain on the ansible-pull SSH syntax but I’ve tried a few: As you suggested above, no : after the remote server’s hostname ```auto charles@UbuntuWS:~/Git-repos/ansible-desktop$ sudo ansible-pull charles@ubuntu-server/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git ``` with colon after server’s hostname: ```auto charles@UbuntuWS:~/Git-repos/ansible-desktop$ sudo ansible-pull charles@ubuntu-server:/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git ``` With ssh:// prefix which I read is the proper syntax on a stackoverflow post, not sure the info is accurate, but I tried anyway. I also added the local domain to the end of the hostname ```auto charles@UbuntuWS:~/Git-repos/ansible-desktop$ sudo ansible-pull ssh://charles@ubuntu-server.charles.home/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git ``` ssh:// prefix combined with your suggestion of no colon after remote server hostname ```auto ``` Each of the above commands result in the same output. Its long so I will only paste once: ```auto charles@UbuntuWS:~/Git-repos/ansible-desktop$ sudo ansible-pull ssh://charles@ubuntu-server/nfs/ubuntu-server/git-repos/ansible/ansible-desktop.git usage: ansible-pull [-h] [--version] [-v] [-k] [--private-key PRIVATE_KEY_FILE] [-u REMOTE_USER] [-c CONNECTION] [-T TIMEOUT] [--ssh-common-args SSH_COMMON_ARGS] [--sftp-extra-args SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS] [--scp-extra-args SCP_EXTRA_ARGS] [--ssh-extra-args SSH_EXTRA_ARGS] [--vault-id VAULT_IDS] [--ask-vault-password | --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES] [-e EXTRA_VARS] [-t TAGS] [--skip-tags SKIP_TAGS] [-i INVENTORY] [--list-hosts] [-l SUBSET] [-M MODULE_PATH] [-K] [--purge] [-o] [-s SLEEP] [-f] [-d DEST] [-U URL] [--full] [-C CHECKOUT] [--accept-host-key] [-m MODULE_NAME] [--verify-commit] [--clean] [--track-subs] [--check] [--diff] [playbook.yml ...] pulls playbooks from a VCS repo and executes them for the local host positional arguments: playbook.yml Playbook(s) optional arguments: --accept-host-key adds the hostkey for the repo url if not already added --ask-vault-password, --ask-vault-pass ask for vault password --check don't make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur --clean modified files in the working repository will be discarded --diff when changing (small) files and templates, show the differences in those files; works great with --check --full Do a full clone, instead of a shallow one. --list-hosts outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else --purge purge checkout after playbook run --skip-tags SKIP_TAGS only run plays and tasks whose tags do not match these values --track-subs submodules will track the latest changes. This is equivalent to specifying the --remote flag to git submodule update --vault-id VAULT_IDS the vault identity to use --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES, --vault-pass-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES vault password file --verify-commit verify GPG signature of checked out commit, if it fails abort running the playbook. This needs the corresponding VCS module to support such an operation --version show program's version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit -C CHECKOUT, --checkout CHECKOUT branch/tag/commit to checkout. Defaults to behavior of repository module. -M MODULE_PATH, --module-path MODULE_PATH prepend colon-separated path(s) to module library (default=~/.ansible/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules) -U URL, --url URL URL of the playbook repository -d DEST, --directory DEST directory to checkout repository to -e EXTRA_VARS, --extra-vars EXTRA_VARS set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @ -f, --force run the playbook even if the repository could not be updated -h, --help show this help message and exit -i INVENTORY, --inventory INVENTORY, --inventory-file INVENTORY specify inventory host path or comma separated host list. --inventory-file is deprecated -l SUBSET, --limit SUBSET further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern -m MODULE_NAME, --module-name MODULE_NAME Repository module name, which ansible will use to check out the repo. Choices are ('git', 'subversion', 'hg', 'bzr'). Default is git. -o, --only-if-changed only run the playbook if the repository has been updated -s SLEEP, --sleep SLEEP sleep for random interval (between 0 and n number of seconds) before starting. This is a useful way to disperse git requests -t TAGS, --tags TAGS only run plays and tasks tagged with these values -v, --verbose verbose mode (-vvv for more, -vvvv to enable connection debugging) Connection Options: control as whom and how to connect to hosts --private-key PRIVATE_KEY_FILE, --key-file PRIVATE_KEY_FILE use this file to authenticate the connection --scp-extra-args SCP_EXTRA_ARGS specify extra arguments to pass to scp only (e.g. -l) --sftp-extra-args SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS specify extra arguments to pass to sftp only (e.g. -f, -l) --ssh-common-args SSH_COMMON_ARGS specify common arguments to pass to sftp/scp/ssh (e.g. ProxyCommand) --ssh-extra-args SSH_EXTRA_ARGS specify extra arguments to pass to ssh only (e.g. -R) -T TIMEOUT, --timeout TIMEOUT override the connection timeout in seconds (default=10) -c CONNECTION, --connection CONNECTION connection type to use (default=smart) -k, --ask-pass ask for connection password -u REMOTE_USER, --user REMOTE_USER connect as this user (default=None) Privilege Escalation Options: control how and which user you become as on target hosts -K, --ask-become-pass ask for privilege escalation password ERROR! URL for repository not specified, use -h for help ``` Part of me is thinking of taking the easy way out and cloning my git repo up to github and using GitHub as the primary repo instead of a local server. Maybe I am overcomplicating but I just see zero need to involve GitHub when a local server should be fully sufficient for this use-case. ---
**Author:** ![hulxmash](https://community.learnlinux.tv/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@hulxmash](https://community.learnlinux.tv/u/hulxmash)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://community.learnlinux.tv/t/ansible-pull-via-ssh-instead-of-https/988/4 "2021-10-15T19:58:29Z")
If that’s the route you are thinking of going, I would consider hosting gitea. It will pretty much give you the same look and feel of git hub, but completely self hosted. I am not working on anything that I would like to expose to the public, so that’s what I’m using in my lab. It works great. Thank you Tom and Jay for mentioning on your podcast.