introduction

This is a vim syntax plugin for Ansible 2.x, it supports YAML playbooks, Jinja2 templates, and Ansible's hosts files.

• YAML playbooks are detected if:
  • they are in the group_vars or host_vars folder
  • they are in the tasks, roles, or handlers folder and have either a .yml or .yaml suffix
  • they are named playbook.y(a)ml, site.y(a)ml, or main.y(a)ml
• Jinja2 templates are detected if they have a .j2 suffix
• Files named hosts will be treated as Ansible hosts files

You can also set the filetype to yaml.ansible, *.jinja2, or ansible_hosts if auto-detection does not work (e.g. :set ft=yaml.ansible or :set ft=ruby.jinja2). Note: If you want to detect a custom pattern of your own, you can easily add this in your .vimrc using something like this:

au BufRead,BufNewFile */playbooks/*.yml set filetype=yaml.ansible

If you want to override the default file type detection you can easily do this in your .vimrc. For example if you use YAML syntax for hosts include something like this:

augroup ansible_vim_fthosts
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead hosts setfiletype yaml.ansible
augroup END

This plugin should be quite reliable, as it sources the original formats and simply modifies the highlights as appropriate. This also enables a focus on simplicity and configurability instead of patching bad syntax detection.

examples (with solarized colorscheme)

Bright (and selective highlight)	Dim

installation

Use your favorite plugin manager, or try vim-plug if you're looking for a really nice one!

vim-plug: Plug 'pearofducks/ansible-vim'

vim-plug with post-update hook: Plug 'pearofducks/ansible-vim', { 'do': './UltiSnips/generate.sh' }

Note: Because of Ansible API changes, generate.sh may require the latest (or near-latest) version of Ansible.

Note2: generate.sh can receive some parameters, for more info see its Readme

vundle: Plugin 'pearofducks/ansible-vim'

pathogen: git clone https://github.com/pearofducks/ansible-vim ~/.vim/bundle/ansible-vim

Arch Linux: Package vim-ansible is available in the community repository.

Fedora: The vim-ansible package is available in the default repository.

RHEL/CentOS: The vim-ansible package is available in the EPEL repository.

options

g:ansible_unindent_after_newline

let g:ansible_unindent_after_newline = 1

When this variable is set, indentation will completely reset (unindent to column 0) after two newlines in insert-mode. The normal behavior of YAML is to always keep the previous indentation, even across multiple newlines with no content.

g:ansible_yamlKeyName

let g:ansible_yamlKeyName = 'yamlKey'

This option exists to provide additional compatibility with stephpy/vim-yaml.

g:ansible_attribute_highlight

let g:ansible_attribute_highlight = "ob"

Ansible modules use a key=value format for specifying module-attributes in playbooks. This highlights those as specified. This highlight option is also used when highlighting key/value pairs in hosts files.

Available flags (bold are defaults):

• a: highlight all instances of key=
• o: highlight only instances of key= found on newlines
• d: dim the instances of key= found
• b: brighten the instances of key= found
• n: turn this highlight off completely

g:ansible_name_highlight

let g:ansible_name_highlight = 'd'

Ansible modules commonly start with a name: key for self-documentation of playbooks. This option enables/changes highlight of this.

Available flags (this feature is off by default):

• d: dim the instances of name: found
• b: brighten the instances of name: found

g:ansible_extra_keywords_highlight

let g:ansible_extra_keywords_highlight = 1

Note: This option is enabled when set, and disabled when not set.

Highlight the following additional keywords: become become_exe become_flags become_method become_user become_pass prompt_l10n debugger always_run check_mode diff no_log args tags force_handlers vars vars_files vars_prompt delegate_facts delegate_to any_errors_fatal ignore_errors ignore_unreachable max_fail_percentage connection hosts port remote_user module_defaults environment fact_path gather_facts gather_subset gather_timeout async poll throttle timeout order run_once serial strategy.

By default we only highlight: include include_role include_tasks include_vars import_role import_playbook import_tasks when changed_when failed_when block rescue always notify listen register action local_action post_tasks pre_tasks tasks handlers roles collections and loop keywords with_.+, loop, loop_control, until, retries, delay.

g:ansible_extra_keywords_highlight_group

let g:ansible_extra_keywords_highlight_group = 'Statement'

Accepts any syntax group name from :help E669 - e.g. Comment, Constant, Identifier

Note: Defaults to 'Structure' when not set.

g:ansible_fqcn_highlight

let g:ansible_fqcn_highlight = 'Constant'

Accepts any syntax group name from :help E669 - e.g. Comment, Constant, Identifier

Note: Defaults to 'Statement' when not set.

Note: The . in the FCQN can also be highlighted via a modification to a Vim syntax internal. This plugin will not do this automatically.

g:ansible_normal_keywords_highlight

let g:ansible_normal_keywords_highlight = 'Constant'

Accepts any syntax group name from :help E669 - e.g. Comment, Constant, Identifier

Note: Defaults to 'Statement' when not set.

This option change the highlight of the following common keywords: include include_role include_tasks include_vars import_role import_playbook import_tasks when changed_when failed_when block rescue always notify listen register action local_action post_tasks pre_tasks tasks handlers roles collections.

g:ansible_loop_keywords_highlight

let g:ansible_loop_keywords_highlight = 'Constant'

Accepts any syntax group-name from :help E669 - e.g. Comment, Constant, Identifier

Note: Defaults to 'Statement' when not set.

This option changes the highlight of all with_.+, loop, loop_control, until, retries and delay keywords.

g:ansible_template_syntaxes

let g:ansible_template_syntaxes = { '*.rb.j2': 'ruby' }

Accepts a dictionary in the form of 'regex-for-file': 'filetype'.

• regex-for-file will receive the full filepath, so directory matching can be done.
• filetype is the root filetype to be applied, jinja2 will be automatically appended

All files ending in *.j2 that aren't matched will simply get the jinja2 filetype.

g:ansible_ftdetect_filename_regex

let g:ansible_ftdetect_filename_regex = '\v(playbook|site|main|local|requirements)\.ya?ml$'

Accepts a regex string that is used to match the filename to determine if the file should use the Ansible filetype

Can be used to avoid clashes with other files that are named the same - e.g. main.yaml used in github workflows by removing main from the regex

goto role under cursor (similar to gf)

This behavior is not supported out of the box, but you can use this snippet in your vimrc.

You'll then be able to go to a role's definition with <leader>gr.

bugs, suggestions/requests, & contributions

bugs

It's unlikely that there will be bugs in highlighting that don't exist in the core format. Where appropriate these will be fixed in this plugin, but if the problem is with the original syntax we should probably focus on fixing that instead.

Indenting a full document - e.g with gg=G - will not be supported and is not a goal of this plugin (unless someone else develops it!). Please do not file a bug report on this.

suggestions/requests

Suggestions for improvements are welcome, pull-requests with completed features even more so. :)