Install multiple packages with apt in a single task (Ansible)

Category: Ansible

When building a system with ansible you'll commonly want to install a variety of packages. Sometimes these will be broken up into individual tasks within various roles, but sometimes you want to install multiple packages as a single task (for example - install useful utilities). This method allows a single task to install multiple packages and their dependancies (the named packages will be installed sequentially) using apt.

Details

  • Language: Ansible

Snippet

- name: Install Utils
  apt: name={{item}} state=latest
  with_items:
    - package1
    - package2

Usage Example

- name: Install Network Utils
  apt: name={{item}} state=latest
  with_items:
    - tcpdump
    - tshark
    - mtr
    - nmap
    - python-scapy
  tags: deps