ansible.builtin.copy – Copy files to remote locations¶

Note

This module is part of ansible-base and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name copy even without specifying the collections: keyword. Despite that, we recommend you use the FQCN for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis
Parameters
Notes
See Also
Examples
Return Values

Synopsis ¶

The copy module copies a file from the local or remote machine to a location on the remote machine.
Use the ansible.builtin.fetch module to copy files from remote locations to the local box.
If you need variable interpolation in copied files, use the ansible.builtin.template module. Using a variable in the content field will result in unpredictable output.
For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_copy module instead.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters ¶

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
attributes string added in 2.3 of ansible.builtin		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 `=` operator is assumed as default, otherwise `+` or `-` operators need to be included in the string. aliases: attr
backup boolean added in 0.7 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no ← yes	Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
checksum string added in 2.5 of ansible.builtin		SHA1 checksum of the file being transferred. Used to validate that the copy of the file was successful. If this is not provided, ansible will use the local calculated checksum of the src file.
content string added in 1.1 of ansible.builtin		When used instead of `src`, sets the contents of a file directly to the specified value. Works only when `dest` is a file. Creates the file if it does not exist. For advanced formatting or if `content` contains a variable, use the ansible.builtin.template module.
decrypt boolean added in 2.4 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no yes ←	This option controls the autodecryption of source files using vault.
dest path / required		Remote absolute path where the file should be copied to. If `src` is a directory, this must be a directory too. If `dest` is a non-existent path and if either `dest` ends with "/" or `src` is a directory, `dest` is created. If dest is a relative path, the starting directory is determined by the remote host. If `src` and `dest` are files, the parent directory of `dest` is not created and the task fails if it does not already exist.
directory_mode raw added in 1.5 of ansible.builtin		When doing a recursive copy set the mode for the directories. If this is not set we will use the system defaults. The mode is only set on directories which are newly created, and will not affect those that already existed.
follow boolean added in 1.8 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no ← yes	This flag indicates that filesystem links in the destination, if they exist, should be followed.
force boolean added in 1.1 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no yes ←	Influence whether the remote file must always be replaced. If `yes`, the remote file will be replaced when contents are different than the source. If `no`, the file will only be transferred if the destination does not exist. Alias `thirsty` has been deprecated and will be removed in 2.13. aliases: thirsty
group string		Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
local_follow boolean added in 2.4 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no yes ←	This flag indicates that filesystem links in the source tree, if they exist, should be followed.
mode path		The permissions of the destination file or directory. 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 `0644` or `01777`)or quote it (like `'644'` or `'1777'`) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. 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, `u+rwx` or `u=rw,g=r,o=r`). As of Ansible 2.3, the mode may also be the special string `preserve`. `preserve` means that the file will be given the same permissions as the source file. When doing a recursive copy, see also `directory_mode`.
owner string		Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
remote_src boolean added in 2.0 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no ← yes	Influence whether `src` needs to be transferred or already is present remotely. If `no`, it will search for `src` at originating/master machine. If `yes` it will go to the remote/target machine for the `src`. `remote_src` supports recursive copying as of version 2.8. `remote_src` only works with `mode=preserve` as of version 2.6.
selevel string		The level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the `range`. When set to `_default`, it will use the `level` portion of the policy if available.
serole string		The role part of the SELinux file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `role` portion of the policy if available.
setype string		The type part of the SELinux file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `type` portion of the policy if available.
seuser string		The user part of the SELinux file context. By default it uses the `system` policy, where applicable. When set to `_default`, it will use the `user` portion of the policy if available.
src path		Local path to a file to copy to the remote server. This can be absolute or relative. If path is a directory, it is copied recursively. In this case, if path ends with "/", only inside contents of that directory are copied to destination. Otherwise, if it does not end with "/", the directory itself with all contents is copied. This behavior is similar to the `rsync` command line tool.
unsafe_writes boolean added in 2.2 of ansible.builtin	Choices: no ← yes	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.
validate string		The validation command to run before copying into place. The path to the file to validate is passed in via '%s' which must be present as in the examples below. The command is passed securely so shell features like expansion and pipes will not work.

Notes ¶

Note

The ansible.builtin.copy module recursively copy facility does not scale to lots (>hundreds) of files.
Supports check_mode.

Examples ¶

- name: Copy file with owner and permissions
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    owner: foo
    group: foo
    mode: '0644'

- name: Copy file with owner and permission, using symbolic representation
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    owner: foo
    group: foo
    mode: u=rw,g=r,o=r

- name: Another symbolic mode example, adding some permissions and removing others
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    owner: foo
    group: foo
    mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx

- name: Copy a new "ntp.conf" file into place, backing up the original if it differs from the copied version
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /mine/ntp.conf
    dest: /etc/ntp.conf
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: '0644'
    backup: yes

- name: Copy a new "sudoers" file into place, after passing validation with visudo
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /mine/sudoers
    dest: /etc/sudoers
    validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

- name: Copy a "sudoers" file on the remote machine for editing
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /etc/sudoers
    dest: /etc/sudoers.edit
    remote_src: yes
    validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

- name: Copy using inline content
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    content: '# This file was moved to /etc/other.conf'
    dest: /etc/mine.conf

- name: If follow=yes, /path/to/file will be overwritten by contents of foo.conf
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /etc/foo.conf
    dest: /path/to/link  # link to /path/to/file
    follow: yes

- name: If follow=no, /path/to/link will become a file and be overwritten by contents of foo.conf
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: /etc/foo.conf
    dest: /path/to/link  # link to /path/to/file
    follow: no

Return Values ¶

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Returned	Description
backup_file string	changed and if backup=yes	Name of backup file created. Sample: /path/to/file.txt.2015-02-12@22:09~
checksum string	success	SHA1 checksum of the file after running copy. Sample: 6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827
dest string	success	Destination file/path. Sample: /path/to/file.txt
gid integer	success	Group id of the file, after execution. Sample: 100
group string	success	Group of the file, after execution. Sample: httpd
md5sum string	when supported	MD5 checksum of the file after running copy. Sample: 2a5aeecc61dc98c4d780b14b330e3282
mode string	success	Permissions of the target, after execution. Sample: 420
owner string	success	Owner of the file, after execution. Sample: httpd
size integer	success	Size of the target, after execution. Sample: 1220
src string	changed	Source file used for the copy on the target machine. Sample: /home/httpd/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1423796390.97-147729857856000/source
state string	success	State of the target, after execution. Sample: file
uid integer	success	Owner id of the file, after execution. Sample: 100

Authors¶

Ansible Core Team
Michael DeHaan

ansible.builtin.copy – Copy files to remote locations¶

Synopsis¶

Parameters¶

Notes¶

See Also¶

Examples¶

Return Values¶

Authors¶

Synopsis ¶

Parameters ¶

Notes ¶

See Also ¶

Examples ¶

Return Values ¶