file – Manage files and file properties¶
Synopsis¶
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
preserve when no modification is required, YYYYMMDDHHMM.SS when using default time format, or now.Default is
None meaning that preserve is the default for state=[file,directory,link,hard] and now is default for state=touch. |
|
|
access_time_format
string
added in 2.7 |
Default: "%Y%m%d%H%M.%S"
|
When used with
access_time, indicates the time format that must be used.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
= operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.aliases: attr |
|
|
follow
boolean
|
|
This flag indicates that filesystem links, if they exist, should be followed.
Previous to Ansible 2.5, this was
no by default. |
|
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
path file and create symlink to the src file in place of it). |
|
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
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). |
|
|
modification_time
string
added in 2.7 |
This parameter indicates the time the file's modification time should be set to.
Should be
preserve when no modification is required, YYYYMMDDHHMM.SS when using default time format, or now.Default is None meaning that
preserve is the default for state=[file,directory,link,hard] and now is default for state=touch. |
|
|
modification_time_format
string
added in 2.7 |
Default: "%Y%m%d%H%M.%S"
|
When used with
modification_time, indicates the time format that must be used.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.
aliases: dest, name |
|
|
recurse
boolean
|
|
Recursively set the specified file attributes on directory contents.
This applies only when
state is set to directory. |
|
selevel
string
|
Default: "s0"
|
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
|
Path of the file to link to.
This applies only to
state=link and state=hard.Will accept absolute and non-existing paths.
Will accept relative paths unless state=hard.
Relative paths are relative to the file being created (
path) which is how the Unix command ln -s SRC DEST treats relative paths. |
|
|
state
string
|
|
If
absent, directories will be recursively deleted, and files or symlinks will be unlinked. Note that absent will not cause file to fail if the path does not exist as the state did not change.If
directory, all intermediate subdirectories will be created if they do not exist. Since Ansible 1.7 they will be created with the supplied permissions.If
file, without any other options this works mostly as a 'stat' and will return the current state of path. Even with other options (i.e mode), the file will be modified but will NOT be created if it does not exist; see the touch value or the copy or template module if you want that behavior.If
hard, the hard link will be created or changed.If
link, the symbolic link will be created or changed.If
touch (new in 1.4), an empty file will be created if the path does not exist, while an existing file or directory will receive updated file access and modification times (similar to the way touch works from the command line). |
|
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.