unarchive – Unpacks an archive after (optionally) copying it from the local machine

Synopsis

  • The unarchive module unpacks an archive.

  • By default, it will copy the source file from the local system to the target before unpacking.

  • Set remote_src=yes to unpack an archive which already exists on the target.

  • If checksum validation is desired, use get_url or uri instead to fetch the file and set remote_src=yes.

  • For Windows targets, use the win_unzip module instead.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
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
copy
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
If true, the file is copied from local 'master' to the target machine, otherwise, the plugin will look for src archive at the target machine.
This option has been deprecated in favor of remote_src.
This option is mutually exclusive with remote_src.
creates
path
If the specified absolute path (file or directory) already exists, this step will not be run.
decrypt
boolean
added in 2.4
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
This option controls the autodecryption of source files using vault.
dest
path / required
Remote absolute path where the archive should be unpacked.
exclude
list
added in 2.1
List the directory and file entries that you would like to exclude from the unarchive action.
extra_opts
list
added in 2.1
 Default:
""
Specify additional options by passing in an array.
group
string
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
keep_newer
boolean
added in 2.1
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Do not replace existing files that are newer than files from the archive.
list_files
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If set to True, return the list of files that are contained in the tarball.
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).
owner
string
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
remote_src
boolean
added in 2.2
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Set to yes to indicate the archived file is already on the remote system and not local to the Ansible controller.
This option is mutually exclusive with copy.
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 / required
If remote_src=no (default), local path to archive file to copy to the target server; can be absolute or relative. If remote_src=yes, path on the target server to existing archive file to unpack.
If remote_src=yes and src contains ://, the remote machine will download the file from the URL first. (version_added 2.0). This is only for simple cases, for full download support use the get_url module.
unsafe_writes
boolean
added in 2.2
    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_certs
boolean
added in 2.2
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
This only applies if using a https URL as the source of the file.
This should only set to no used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificate.
Prior to 2.2 the code worked as if this was set to yes.

Notes

Note

  • Requires gtar/unzip command on target host.

  • Can handle .zip files using unzip as well as .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 and .tar.xz files using gtar.

  • Uses gtar’s --diff arg to calculate if changed or not. If this arg is not supported, it will always unpack the archive.

  • Existing files/directories in the destination which are not in the archive are not touched. This is the same behavior as a normal archive extraction.

  • Existing files/directories in the destination which are not in the archive are ignored for purposes of deciding if the archive should be unpacked or not.

See Also

See also

archive – Creates a compressed archive of one or more files or trees

The official documentation on the archive module.

iso_extract – Extract files from an ISO image

The official documentation on the iso_extract module.

win_unzip – Unzips compressed files and archives on the Windows node

The official documentation on the win_unzip module.

Examples

- name: Extract foo.tgz into /var/lib/foo
  unarchive:
    src: foo.tgz
    dest: /var/lib/foo

- name: Unarchive a file that is already on the remote machine
  unarchive:
    src: /tmp/foo.zip
    dest: /usr/local/bin
    remote_src: yes

- name: Unarchive a file that needs to be downloaded (added in 2.0)
  unarchive:
    src: https://example.com/example.zip
    dest: /usr/local/bin
    remote_src: yes

- name: Unarchive a file with extra options
  unarchive:
    src: /tmp/foo.zip
    dest: /usr/local/bin
    extra_opts:
    - --transform
    - s/^xxx/yyy/

Status

Red Hat Support

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

Authors

  • Michael DeHaan

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