Basic Usage

Below are some very simple examples of how to use Vagrant Triggers.

Examples

The following is a basic example of two global triggers. One that runs before the :up command and one that runs after the :up command:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.trigger.before :up do |trigger|
    trigger.name = "Hello world"
    trigger.info = "I am running before vagrant up!!"
  end

  config.trigger.after :up do |trigger|
    trigger.name = "Hello world"
    trigger.info = "I am running after vagrant up!!"
  end

  config.vm.define "ubuntu" do |ubuntu|
    ubuntu.vm.box = "ubuntu"
  end
end

These will run before and after each defined guest in the Vagrantfile.

Running a remote script to save a database on your host before destroying a guest:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.define "ubuntu" do |ubuntu|
    ubuntu.vm.box = "ubuntu"

    ubuntu.trigger.before :destroy do |trigger|
      trigger.warn = "Dumping database to /vagrant/outfile"
      trigger.run_remote = {inline: "pg_dump dbname > /vagrant/outfile"}
    end
  end
end

Now that the trigger is defined, running the destroy command will fire off the defined trigger before Vagrant destroys the machine.

$ vagrant destroy ubuntu

An example of defining three triggers that start and stop tinyproxy on your host machine using homebrew:

#/bin/bash
# start-tinyproxy.sh
brew services start tinyproxy

#/bin/bash
# stop-tinyproxy.sh
brew services stop tinyproxy

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.define "ubuntu" do |ubuntu|
    ubuntu.vm.box = "ubuntu"

    ubuntu.trigger.before :up do |trigger|
      trigger.info = "Starting tinyproxy..."
      trigger.run = {path: "start-tinyproxy.sh"}
    end

    ubuntu.trigger.after :destroy, :halt do |trigger|
      trigger.info = "Stopping tinyproxy..."
      trigger.run = {path: "stop-tinyproxy.sh"}
    end
  end
end

Running vagrant up would fire the before trigger to start tinyproxy, where as running either vagrant destroy or vagrant halt would stop tinyproxy.

Ruby Option

Triggers can also be defined to run Ruby, rather than bash or PowerShell. An example of this might be using a Ruby option to get more information from the VBoxManage tool. In this case, we are printing the ostype defined for thte guest after it has been brought up.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.define "ubuntu" do |ubuntu|
    ubuntu.vm.box = "ubuntu"

    ubuntu.trigger.after :up do |trigger|
      trigger.info = "More information with ruby magic"
      trigger.ruby do |env,machine|
        puts `VBoxManage showvminfo #{machine.id} --machinereadable | grep ostype`
      end
    end
  end
end

If you are defining your triggers using the hash syntax, you must use the Proc type for defining a ruby trigger.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.define "ubuntu" do |ubuntu|
    ubuntu.vm.box = "ubuntu"

    ubuntu.trigger.after :up,
      info: "More information with ruby magic",
      ruby: proc{|env,machine| puts `VBoxManage showvminfo #{machine.id} --machinereadable | grep ostype`}
  end
end

Typed Triggers

Below are some basic examples of using :type triggers. They cover commands, hooks, and actions.

It is important to note that while command triggers will be a fairly common use case, both action and hook triggers are more complicated and are a more advanced use case.

Commands

The most common use case for typed triggers are with command. These kinds of triggers allow you to run something before or after a subcommand in Vagrant.

config.trigger.after :status, type: :command do |t|
  t.info = "Showing status of all VMs!"
end

Because they are specifically for subcommands, they do not work with any guest operations like run_remote or if you define the trigger as a guest trigger.

Hooks

Below is an example of a Vagrant trigger that runs before and after each defined provisioner:

config.trigger.before :provisioner_run, type: :hook do |t|
  t.info = "Before the provision!"
end

config.vm.provision "file", source: "scripts/script.sh", destination: "/test/script.sh"

config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
echo "Provision the guest!"
SHELL

Notice how this trigger runs before each provisioner defined for the guest:

==> guest: Running provisioner: Sandbox (file)...
==> vagrant: Running hook triggers before provisioner_run ...
==> vagrant: Running trigger...
==> vagrant: Before the provision!
    guest: /home/hashicorp/vagrant-sandbox/scripts/script.sh => /home/vagrant/test/script.sh
==> guest: Running provisioner: shell...
==> vagrant: Running hook triggers before provisioner_run ...
==> vagrant: Running trigger...
==> vagrant: Before the provision!
    guest: Running: inline script
    guest: Provision the guest!

Actions

With action typed triggers, you can fire off triggers before or after certain Action classes. A simple example of this might be warning the user when Vagrant invokes the GracefulHalt action.

config.trigger.before :"Vagrant::Action::Builtin::GracefulHalt", type: :action do |t|
  t.warn = "Vagrant is halting your guest..."
end