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Can one deploy an environment for some Linux OS (say, Ubuntu) from a raw Github playbook in a way similar to this (I wonder if it's the correct syntax)?

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user/repo/master/nginx-cms-addons.yml | tr -d '\r' | ansible-playbook)

Edit: This is my own Github account so there isn't a risk.

In use a similar pattern to download and execute bash scripts but I want to know if the principle is identical for Ansible playbooks.

If it matters, the environment I want to deploy directly from the Github raw yaml configures Ubuntu a bit (firewall), installs some trivial software like zip, a server environment (Nginx/Postfix) and that's basically it.

My purpose to execute my playbook with ansible as a substitute for the long Bash script I currently use, made of this code, basically:

#!/bin/bash
ufw --force enable && ufw allow 22,25,80,443,9000/tcp
apt-get update -y && add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot -y && apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade zip unzip tree unattended-upgrades sshguard nginx python-certbot-nginx mysql-server php-fpm php-mysql php-mbstring php-mcrypt -y
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get upgrade postfix -y
sed -i "s/post_max_size = .M/post_max_size = 250M/ ; s/upload_max_filesize = .M/upload_max_filesize = 250M/" /etc/php/*/fpm/php.ini
sed -i "s/;cgi.fix_pathinfo=1/cgi.fix_pathinfo=0/" /etc/php/*/fpm/php.ini
# sed -i "s/# gzip_/gzip_/g" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
/etc/init.d/php*-fpm restart && systemctl restart nginx.service

1 Answer 1

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There is no "right" or "wrong". If the commands work when you type them in, then they work, and we won't keep you from doing it.

Everything else is opinion. Sure, there are some best practices, for example some people find it unwise to directly fetch scripts from a public (3rd party) website and execute those locally without having a look inside first.

It goes without saying that your approach is in fact a rather significant risk. You are effectively giving root access on the target machine (and any other machine your local user has ssh keys for...) to anyone who can push into your repository. How earnest that risk is is something only you can decide.

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  • Sorry for not mentioning in the question (I've now edited). This is my personal Github account. Thanks! Jan 22, 2018 at 23:23
  • Basically my aim was to make sure my syntax is correct. Jan 22, 2018 at 23:25
  • @Arcticooling, did you try it? Did it work?
    – AnoE
    Jan 22, 2018 at 23:25
  • No, I started learning Ansible today, have yet to try codes, I just asked the question to have a glimpse on Bash-Ansible "relations". To understand for example "should I replace my Github Bash script in an Ansible playground" and "how to deploy the deployment". I need to learn more on Ansible before testing anything of that sort. Jan 22, 2018 at 23:30
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    @Arcticooling, then what you are doing is fine as a first "play-usage" of Ansible. Go ahead and just get it to work (if there are syntax problems you cannot solve, just open a new question). Eventually, you will yourself build an opinion of whether you want to use Ansible in this very "direct" way, or if you wish to use some other way (for example Vagrant, Puppet or whatever).
    – AnoE
    Jan 23, 2018 at 16:17

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