.. _targeting-pillar:

====================== Targeting using Pillar

Pillar data can be used when targeting minions. This allows for ultimate control and flexibility when targeting minions.

.. note::

To start using Pillar targeting it is required to make a Pillar
data cache on Salt Master for each Minion via following commands:
``salt '*' saltutil.refresh_pillar`` or ``salt '*' saltutil.sync_all``.
Also Pillar data cache will be populated during the
:ref:`highstate <running-highstate>` run. Once Pillar data changes, you
must refresh the cache by running above commands for this targeting
method to work correctly.

Example:

.. code-block:: bash

salt -I 'somekey:specialvalue' test.version

Like with :ref:Grains <targeting-grains>, it is possible to use globbing as well as match nested values in Pillar, by adding colons for each level that is being traversed. The below example would match minions with a pillar named foo, which is a dict containing a key bar, with a value beginning with baz:

.. code-block:: bash

salt -I 'foo:bar:baz*' test.version