get_url – Downloads files from HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP to node

Synopsis

  • Downloads files from HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP to the remote server. The remote server must have direct access to the remote resource.
  • By default, if an environment variable <protocol>_proxy is set on the target host, requests will be sent through that proxy. This behaviour can be overridden by setting a variable for this task (see setting the environment), or by using the use_proxy option.
  • HTTP redirects can redirect from HTTP to HTTPS so you should be sure that your proxy environment for both protocols is correct.
  • From Ansible 2.4 when run with --check, it will do a HEAD request to validate the URL but will not download the entire file or verify it against hashes.
  • For Windows targets, use the win_get_url module instead.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
attributes
-
added in 2.3
Attributes the 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.
= operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

aliases: attr
backup
boolean
added in 2.1
    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
-
added in 2.0
 Default:
""
If a checksum is passed to this parameter, the digest of the destination file will be calculated after it is downloaded to ensure its integrity and verify that the transfer completed successfully. Format: <algorithm>:<checksum|url>, e.g. checksum="sha256:D98291AC[...]B6DC7B97", checksum="sha256:http://example.com/path/sha256sum.txt"
If you worry about portability, only the sha1 algorithm is available on all platforms and python versions.
The third party hashlib library can be installed for access to additional algorithms.
Additionally, if a checksum is passed to this parameter, and the file exist under the dest location, the destination_checksum would be calculated, and if checksum equals destination_checksum, the file download would be skipped (unless force is true).
client_cert
-
added in 2.4
PEM formatted certificate chain file to be used for SSL client authentication. This file can also include the key as well, and if the key is included, client_key is not required.
client_key
-
added in 2.4
PEM formatted file that contains your private key to be used for SSL client authentication. If client_cert contains both the certificate and key, this option is not required.
dest
- / required
Absolute path of where to download the file to.
If dest is a directory, either the server provided filename or, if none provided, the base name of the URL on the remote server will be used. If a directory, force has no effect.
If dest is a directory, the file will always be downloaded (regardless of the force option), but replaced only if the contents changed..
force
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If yes and dest is not a directory, will download the file every time and replace the file if the contents change. If no, the file will only be downloaded if the destination does not exist. Generally should be yes only for small local files.
Prior to 0.6, this module behaved as if yes was the default.

aliases: thirsty
force_basic_auth
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
httplib2, the library used by the uri module only sends authentication information when a webservice responds to an initial request with a 401 status. Since some basic auth services do not properly send a 401, logins will fail. This option forces the sending of the Basic authentication header upon initial request.
group
-
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
headers
-
added in 2.0
Add custom HTTP headers to a request in hash/dict format. The hash/dict format was added in 2.6. Previous versions used a "key:value,key:value" string format. The "key:value,key:value" string format is deprecated and will be removed in version 2.10.
mode
-
Mode the file or directory should be. 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 version 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
others
-
all arguments accepted by the file module also work here
owner
-
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
selevel
-
Default:
"s0"
Level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. _default feature works as for seuser.
serole
-
Role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
setype
-
Type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
seuser
-
User part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
sha256sum
-
added in 1.3
 Default:
""
If a SHA-256 checksum is passed to this parameter, the digest of the destination file will be calculated after it is downloaded to ensure its integrity and verify that the transfer completed successfully. This option is deprecated. Use checksum instead.
timeout
-
added in 1.8
 Default:
10
Timeout in seconds for URL request.
tmp_dest
-
added in 2.1
Absolute path of where temporary file is downloaded to.
When run on Ansible 2.5 or greater, path defaults to ansible's remote_tmp setting
When run on Ansible prior to 2.5, it defaults to TMPDIR, TEMP or TMP env variables or a platform specific value.
unsafe_writes
boolean
added in 2.2
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
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.
url
- / required
HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP URL in the form (http|https|ftp)://[user[:pass]]@host.domain[:port]/path
url_password
-
added in 1.6
The password for use in HTTP basic authentication.
If the url_username parameter is not specified, the url_password parameter will not be used.
url_username
-
added in 1.6
The username for use in HTTP basic authentication.
This parameter can be used without url_password for sites that allow empty passwords.
use_proxy
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
if no, it will not use a proxy, even if one is defined in an environment variable on the target hosts.
validate_certs
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
If no, SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only be used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates.

Notes

Note

  • For Windows targets, use the win_get_url module instead.

Examples

- name: Download foo.conf
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    mode: 0440

- name: Download file and force basic auth
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    force_basic_auth: yes

- name: Download file with custom HTTP headers
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    headers:
      key1: one
      key2: two

- name: Download file with check (sha256)
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: sha256:b5bb9d8014a0f9b1d61e21e796d78dccdf1352f23cd32812f4850b878ae4944c

- name: Download file with check (md5)
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: md5:66dffb5228a211e61d6d7ef4a86f5758

- name: Download file with checksum url (sha256)
  get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: 'sha256:http://example.com/path/sha256sum.txt'

- name: Download file from a file path
  get_url:
    url: file:///tmp/afile.txt
    dest: /tmp/afilecopy.txt

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 after download

Sample:
/path/to/file.txt.2015-02-12@22:09~
checksum_dest
string
 success
sha1 checksum of the file after copy

Sample:
6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827
checksum_src
string
 success
sha1 checksum of the file

Sample:
6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827
dest
string
 success
destination file/path

Sample:
/path/to/file.txt
gid
integer
 success
group id of the file

Sample:
100
group
string
 success
group of the file

Sample:
httpd
md5sum
string
 when supported
md5 checksum of the file after download

Sample:
2a5aeecc61dc98c4d780b14b330e3282
mode
string
 success
permissions of the target

Sample:
0644
msg
string
 always
the HTTP message from the request

Sample:
OK (unknown bytes)
owner
string
 success
owner of the file

Sample:
httpd
secontext
string
 success
the SELinux security context of the file

Sample:
unconfined_u:object_r:user_tmp_t:s0
size
integer
 success
size of the target

Sample:
1220
src
string
 changed
source file used after download

Sample:
/tmp/tmpAdFLdV
state
string
 success
state of the target

Sample:
file
status_code
integer
 always
the HTTP status code from the request

Sample:
200
uid
integer
 success
owner id of the file, after execution

Sample:
100
url
string
 always
the actual URL used for the request

Sample:
https://www.ansible.com/


Status

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

  • Jan-Piet Mens (@jpmens)

Hint

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