.. _targeting-grains:

====================== Targeting using Grains

Grain data can be used when targeting minions.

For example, the following matches all CentOS minions:

.. code-block:: bash

salt -G 'os:CentOS' test.version

Match all minions with 64-bit CPUs, and return number of CPU cores for each matching minion:

.. code-block:: bash

salt -G 'cpuarch:x86_64' grains.item num_cpus

Additionally, globs can be used in grain matches, and grains that are nested in a dictionary can be matched by adding a colon for each level that is traversed. For example, the following will match hosts that have a grain called ec2_tags, which itself is a dictionary with a key named environment, which has a value that contains the word production:

.. code-block:: bash

salt -G 'ec2_tags:environment:*production*'

.. important:: See :ref:Is Targeting using Grain Data Secure? <faq-grain-security> for important security information.