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docsite/rst/modules.rst

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+Ansible Modules
+===============
+
+.. contents::
+   :depth: 2
+   :backlinks: top
+
+Introduction
+````````````
+
+
+Ansible ships with a number of modules (called the 'module library')
+that can be executed directly on remote hosts or through :doc:`playbooks`.
+Users can also write their own modules.   These modules can control system
+resources, like services, packages, or files (anything really), or
+handle executing system commands.
+
+Let's review how we execute three different modules from the command line::
+
+    ansible webservers -m service -a "name=httpd state=running"
+    ansible webservers -m ping
+    ansible webservers -m command -a "/sbin/reboot -t now"
+
+Each module supports taking arguments.  Nearly all modules take ``key=value``
+arguments, space delimited.  Some modules take no arguments, and the
+command/shell modules simply take the string of the command you want to run.
+
+From playbooks, Ansible modules are executed in a very similar way::
+
+    - name: reboot the servers
+      action: command /sbin/reboot -t now
+
+All modules technically return JSON format data, though if you are using the
+command line or playbooks, you don't really need to know much about
+that.  If you're writing your own module, you care, and this means you do
+not have to write modules in any particular language -- you get to choose.
+
+Modules are `idempotent`, meaning they will seek to avoid changes to the system unless a change needs to be made.  When using Ansible
+playbooks, these modules can trigger 'change events' in the form of notifying 'handlers'
+to run additional tasks.
+
+Let's see what's available in the Ansible module library, out of the box:
+
+
+.. include:: modules/_list.rst
+
+
+Additional Contrib Modules
+``````````````````````````
+
+In addition to the following built-in modules, community modules are available at `Ansible Resources <http://github.com/ansible/ansible-resources>`_.
+
+Writing your own modules
+````````````````````````
+
+See :doc:`moduledev`.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+   `Ansible Resources (Contrib) <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-resources>`_
+       User contributed playbooks, modules, and articles
+   :doc:`examples`
+       Examples of using modules in /usr/bin/ansible
+   :doc:`playbooks`
+       Examples of using modules with /usr/bin/ansible-playbook
+   :doc:`moduledev`
+       How to write your own modules
+   :doc:`api`
+       Examples of using modules with the Python API
+   `Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-project>`_
+       Questions? Help? Ideas?  Stop by the list on Google Groups
+   `irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
+       #ansible IRC chat channel
+