.. _interpreter_discovery:

Interpreter Discovery

Most Ansible modules that execute under a POSIX environment require a Python interpreter on the target host. Unless configured otherwise, Ansible will attempt to discover a suitable Python interpreter on each target host the first time a Python module is executed for that host.

To control the discovery behavior:

• for individual hosts and groups, use the ansible_python_interpreter inventory variable
• globally, use the interpreter_python key in the [defaults] section of ansible.cfg

Configure a path to a specific Python interpreter, or one of the following values:

auto (default) : Searches the configurable list of common Python interpreter paths (see :ref:INTERPRETER_PYTHON_FALLBACK) and issues a warning that future installation of another Python interpreter could alter the one chosen.

auto_legacy : Deprecated alias for auto.

auto_silent : Same as auto, but does not issue warnings.

auto_legacy_silent : Deprecated alias for auto_silent.