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 call rsync 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

_local_rsync_password

string

Internal use only, never logged.

_local_rsync_path

path

Internal use only.

Default: "rsync"

_ssh_args

string

Internal use only. See use_ssh_args for ssh arg settings.

_substitute_controller

boolean

Internal use only.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

archive

boolean

Mirrors the rsync archive flag, enables recursive, links, perms, times, owner, group flags, and -D.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

checksum

boolean

Skip based on checksum, rather than mod-time & size; Note that that archive option is still enabled by default - the checksum option will not disable it.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

compress

boolean

Compress file data during the transfer.

In most cases, leave this enabled unless it causes problems.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

boolean

Copy symlinks as the item that they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

delay_updates

boolean

added in ansible.posix 1.3.0

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:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

delete

boolean

Delete files in dest that do not exist (after transfer, not before) in the src path.

This option requires recursive=true.

This option ignores excluded files and behaves like the rsync opt --delete-after.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

dest

path / required

Path on the destination host that will be synchronized from the source.

The path can be absolute or relative.

dest_port

integer

Port number for ssh on the destination host.

Prior to Ansible 2.0, the ansible_ssh_port inventory var took precedence over this value.

This parameter defaults to the value of ansible_port, the remote_port config setting or the value from ssh client configuration if none of the former have been set.

dirs

boolean

Transfer directories without recursing.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

existing_only

boolean

Skip creating new files on receiver.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

group

boolean

Preserve group.

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

list / elements=path

Add a destination to hard link against during the rsync.

boolean

Copy symlinks as symlinks.

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

mode

string

Specify the direction of the synchronization.

In push mode the localhost or delegate is the source.

In pull mode the remote host in context is the source.

Choices:

  • "pull"

  • "push" ← (default)

owner

boolean

Preserve owner (super user only).

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

partial

boolean

Tells rsync to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

perms

boolean

Preserve permissions.

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

private_key

path

Specify the private key to use for SSH-based rsync connections (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa).

recursive

boolean

Recurse into directories.

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

rsync_opts

list / elements=string

Specify additional rsync options by passing in an array.

Note that an empty string in rsync_opts will end up transfer the current working directory.

Default: []

rsync_path

string

Specify the rsync command to run on the remote host. See --rsync-path on the rsync man page.

To specify the rsync command to run on the local host, you need to set this your task var ansible_rsync_path.

rsync_timeout

integer

Specify a --timeout for the rsync command in seconds.

Default: 0

set_remote_user

boolean

Put user@ for the remote paths.

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 false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

src

path / required

Path on the source host that will be synchronized to the destination.

The path can be absolute or relative.

ssh_connection_multiplexing

boolean

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 ControlSocket to none.

Set this option to true to allow multiplexing and reduce SSH connection overhead.

Note that simply setting this option to true is not enough; You must also configure SSH connection multiplexing in your SSH client config by setting values for ControlMaster, ControlPersist and ControlPath.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

times

boolean

Preserve modification times.

This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

use_ssh_args

boolean

In Ansible 2.10 and lower, it uses the ssh_args specified in ansible.cfg.

In Ansible 2.11 and onwards, when set to true, it uses all SSH connection configurations like ansible_ssh_args, ansible_ssh_common_args, and ansible_ssh_extra_args.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

verify_host

boolean

Verify destination host key.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

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 a delegate_to host when delegate_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

Authors

  • Timothy Appnel (@tima)