file – Manage files and file properties
file – Manage files and file properties
Synopsis
- Set attributes of files, symlinks or directories.
- Alternatively, remove files, symlinks or directories.
- Many other modules support the same options as the
file
module - including copy, template, and assemble. - For Windows targets, use the win_file module instead.
Parameters
Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments |
---|---|---|
access_time string added in 2.7 |
This parameter indicates the time the file's access time should be set to. Should be Default is | |
access_time_format string added in 2.7 |
Default: "%Y%m%d%H%M.%S" |
When used with Based on default Python format (see time.strftime doc). |
attributes string added in 2.3 |
The attributes the resulting file or directory should have. To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system. This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr. The
| |
follow boolean |
|
This flag indicates that filesystem links, if they exist, should be followed. Previous to Ansible 2.5, this was |
force boolean |
|
Force the creation of the symlinks in two cases: the source file does not exist (but will appear later); the destination exists and is a file (so, we need to unlink the |
group string |
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown. | |
mode string |
The permissions the resulting file or directory should have. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like Giving Ansible a number without following one of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results. As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, | |
modification_time string added in 2.7 |
This parameter indicates the time the file's modification time should be set to. Should be Default is None meaning that | |
modification_time_format string added in 2.7 |
Default: "%Y%m%d%H%M.%S" |
When used with Based on default Python format (see time.strftime doc). |
owner string |
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown. | |
path path / required |
Path to the file being managed.
| |
recurse boolean |
|
Recursively set the specified file attributes on directory contents. This applies only when |
selevel string |
Default: "s0" |
The level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the When set to |
serole string |
The role part of the SELinux file context. When set to | |
setype string |
The type part of the SELinux file context. When set to | |
seuser string |
The user part of the SELinux file context. By default it uses the When set to | |
src path |
Path of the file to link to. This applies only to Will accept absolute and non-existing paths. Will accept relative paths unless state=hard. Relative paths are relative to the file being created ( | |
state string |
|
If If If If If If |
unsafe_writes boolean added in 2.2 |
|
Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target file. By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner. This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn't force Ansible to perform unsafe writes). IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption. |
See Also
See also
- assemble – Assemble configuration files from fragments
- The official documentation on the assemble module.
- copy – Copy files to remote locations
- The official documentation on the copy module.
- stat – Retrieve file or file system status
- The official documentation on the stat module.
- template – Template a file out to a remote server
- The official documentation on the template module.
- win_file – Creates, touches or removes files or directories
- The official documentation on the win_file module.
Examples
- name: Change file ownership, group and permissions
file:
path: /etc/foo.conf
owner: foo
group: foo
mode: '0644'
- name: Create an insecure file
file:
path: /work
owner: root
group: root
mode: '1777'
- name: Create a symbolic link
file:
src: /file/to/link/to
dest: /path/to/symlink
owner: foo
group: foo
state: link
- name: Create two hard links
file:
src: '/tmp/{{ item.src }}'
dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
state: link
with_items:
- { src: x, dest: y }
- { src: z, dest: k }
- name: Touch a file, using symbolic modes to set the permissions (equivalent to 0644)
file:
path: /etc/foo.conf
state: touch
mode: u=rw,g=r,o=r
- name: Touch the same file, but add/remove some permissions
file:
path: /etc/foo.conf
state: touch
mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx
- name: Touch again the same file, but dont change times this makes the task idempotent
file:
path: /etc/foo.conf
state: touch
mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx
modification_time: preserve
access_time: preserve
- name: Create a directory if it does not exist
file:
path: /etc/some_directory
state: directory
mode: '0755'
- name: Update modification and access time of given file
file:
path: /etc/some_file
state: file
modification_time: now
access_time: now
- name: Set access time based on seconds from epoch value
file:
path: /etc/another_file
state: file
access_time: '{{ "%Y%m%d%H%M.%S" | strftime(stat_var.stat.atime) }}'
- name: Recursively change ownership of a directory
file:
path: /etc/foo
state: directory
recurse: yes
owner: foo
group: foo
Status
- This module is guaranteed to have no backward incompatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]
Red Hat Support
More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.
Authors
- Ansible Core Team
- Michael DeHaan
© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/file_module.html