ansible.posix.synchronize module – A wrapper around rsync to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy
Note
This module is part of the ansible.posix collection (version 1.6.2).
You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible
package.
It is not included in ansible-core
.
To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list
.
To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.posix
.
To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.posix.synchronize
.
New in ansible.posix 1.0.0
Synopsis
ansible.posix.synchronize is a wrapper around
rsync
to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy.It is run and originates on the local host where Ansible is being run.
Of course, you could just use the ansible.builtin.command action to call
rsync
yourself, but you also have to add a fair number of boilerplate options and host facts.This module is not intended to provide access to the full power of
rsync
, but does make the most common invocations easier to implement. You still may need to callrsync
directly via ansible.builtin.command or ansible.builtin.shell depending on your use case.
Note
This module has a corresponding action plugin.
Parameters
Parameter |
Comments |
---|---|
Internal use only, never logged. |
|
Internal use only. Default: |
|
Internal use only. See |
|
Internal use only. Choices:
|
|
Mirrors the rsync archive flag, enables recursive, links, perms, times, owner, group flags, and Choices:
|
|
Compress file data during the transfer. In most cases, leave this enabled unless it causes problems. Choices:
|
|
Copy symlinks as the item that they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. Choices:
|
|
This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid succession. Choices:
|
|
Delete files in This option requires This option ignores excluded files and behaves like the rsync opt Choices:
|
|
Path on the destination host that will be synchronized from the source. The path can be absolute or relative. |
|
Port number for ssh on the destination host. Prior to Ansible 2.0, the This parameter defaults to the value of |
|
Transfer directories without recursing. Choices:
|
|
Skip creating new files on receiver. Choices:
|
|
Preserve group. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
Add a destination to hard link against during the rsync. |
|
Copy symlinks as symlinks. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
Specify the direction of the synchronization. In In Choices:
|
|
Preserve owner (super user only). This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
Tells rsync to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster. Choices:
|
|
Preserve permissions. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
Specify the private key to use for SSH-based rsync connections (e.g. |
|
Recurse into directories. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
Specify additional rsync options by passing in an array. Note that an empty string in Default: |
|
Specify the rsync command to run on the remote host. See To specify the rsync command to run on the local host, you need to set this your task var |
|
Specify a Default: |
|
Put If you have a custom ssh config to define the remote user for a host that does not match the inventory user, you should set this parameter to Choices:
|
|
Path on the source host that will be synchronized to the destination. The path can be absolute or relative. |
|
SSH connection multiplexing for rsync is disabled by default to prevent misconfigured ControlSockets from resulting in failed SSH connections. This is accomplished by setting the SSH Set this option to Note that simply setting this option to Choices:
|
|
Preserve modification times. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. Choices:
|
|
In Ansible 2.10 and lower, it uses the ssh_args specified in In Ansible 2.11 and onwards, when set to Choices:
|
|
Verify destination host key. Choices:
|
Notes
Note
rsync
must be installed on both the local and remote host.For the ansible.posix.synchronize module, the “local host” is the host the synchronize task originates on, and the “destination host” is the host synchronize is connecting to.
The “local host” can be changed to a different host by using
delegate_to
. This enables copying between two remote hosts or entirely on one remote machine.The user and permissions for the synchronize
src
are those of the user running the Ansible task on the local host (or the remote_user for adelegate_to
host whendelegate_to
is used).The user and permissions for the synchronize `dest` are those of the `remote_user` on the destination host or the `become_user` if `become=yes` is active.
In Ansible 2.0 a bug in the synchronize module made become occur on the “local host”. This was fixed in Ansible 2.0.1.
Currently, ansible.posix.synchronize is limited to elevating permissions via passwordless sudo. This is because rsync itself is connecting to the remote machine and rsync doesn’t give us a way to pass sudo credentials in.
Currently there are only a few connection types which support synchronize (ssh, paramiko, local, and docker) because a sync strategy has been determined for those connection types. Note that the connection for these must not need a password as rsync itself is making the connection and rsync does not provide us a way to pass a password to the connection.
Expect that
dest=~/x
will be~<remote_user>/x
even if using sudo.Inspect the verbose output to validate the destination user/host/path are what was expected.
To exclude files and directories from being synchronized, you may add
.rsync-filter
files to the source directory.rsync daemon must be up and running with correct permission when using rsync protocol in source or destination path.
The
synchronize
module enables--delay-updates
by default to avoid leaving a destination in a broken in-between state if the underlying rsync process encounters an error. Those synchronizing large numbers of files that are willing to trade safety for performance should disable this option.link_destination is subject to the same limitations as the underlying rsync daemon. Hard links are only preserved if the relative subtrees of the source and destination are the same. Attempts to hardlink into a directory that is a subdirectory of the source will be prevented.
See Also
See also
- ansible.builtin.copy
Copy files to remote locations.
- community.windows.win_robocopy
Synchronizes the contents of two directories using Robocopy.
Examples
- name: Synchronization of src on the control machine to dest on the remote hosts
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (push)
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path/
dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/
- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (pull)
ansible.posix.synchronize:
mode: pull
src: rsync://somehost.com/path/
dest: /some/absolute/path/
- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (push)
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /some/absolute/path/
dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/
delegate_to: delegate.host
- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (pull)
ansible.posix.synchronize:
mode: pull
src: rsync://somehost.com/path/
dest: /some/absolute/path/
delegate_to: delegate.host
- name: Synchronization without any --archive options enabled
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
archive: false
- name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --recursive
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
recursive: false
- name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --times, with --checksum option enabled
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
checksum: true
times: false
- name: Synchronization without --archive options enabled except use --links
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
archive: false
links: true
- name: Synchronization of two paths both on the control machine
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Synchronization of src on the inventory host to the dest on the localhost in pull mode
ansible.posix.synchronize:
mode: pull
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
- name: Synchronization of src on delegate host to dest on the current inventory host.
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /first/absolute/path
dest: /second/absolute/path
delegate_to: delegate.host
- name: Synchronize two directories on one remote host.
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /first/absolute/path
dest: /second/absolute/path
delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
- name: Synchronize and delete files in dest on the remote host that are not found in src of localhost.
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
delete: true
recursive: true
# This specific command is granted su privileges on the destination
- name: Synchronize using an alternate rsync command
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: some/relative/path
dest: /some/absolute/path
rsync_path: su -c rsync
# Example .rsync-filter file in the source directory
# - var # exclude any path whose last part is 'var'
# - /var # exclude any path starting with 'var' starting at the source directory
# + /var/conf # include /var/conf even though it was previously excluded
- name: Synchronize passing in extra rsync options
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /tmp/helloworld
dest: /var/www/helloworld
rsync_opts:
- "--no-motd"
- "--exclude=.git"
# Hardlink files if they didn't change
- name: Use hardlinks when synchronizing filesystems
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /tmp/path_a/foo.txt
dest: /tmp/path_b/foo.txt
link_dest: /tmp/path_a/
# Specify the rsync binary to use on remote host and on local host
- hosts: groupofhosts
vars:
ansible_rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync
tasks:
- name: copy /tmp/localpath/ to remote location /tmp/remotepath
ansible.posix.synchronize:
src: /tmp/localpath/
dest: /tmp/remotepath
rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync