win_file – Creates, touches or removes files or directories

Synopsis

• Creates (empty) files, updates file modification stamps of existing files, and can create or remove directories.

• Unlike file, does not modify ownership, permissions or manipulate links.

• For non-Windows targets, use the file module instead.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
path path / required		Path to the file being managed. aliases: dest, name
state string	Choices: absent directory file touch	If directory, all immediate subdirectories will be created if they do not exist. If file, the file will NOT be created if it does not exist, see the copy or template module if you want that behavior. If absent, directories will be recursively deleted, and files will be removed. If touch, 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).

See Also

See also

file – Manage files and file properties

The official documentation on the file module.

win_acl – Set file/directory/registry permissions for a system user or group

The official documentation on the win_acl module.

win_acl_inheritance – Change ACL inheritance

The official documentation on the win_acl_inheritance module.

win_owner – Set owner

The official documentation on the win_owner module.

win_stat – Get information about Windows files

The official documentation on the win_stat module.

Examples

- name: Touch a file (creates if not present, updates modification time if present)
  win_file:
    path: C:\Temp\foo.conf
    state: touch

- name: Remove a file, if present
  win_file:
    path: C:\Temp\foo.conf
    state: absent

- name: Create directory structure
  win_file:
    path: C:\Temp\folder\subfolder
    state: directory

- name: Remove directory structure
  win_file:
    path: C:\Temp
    state: absent

Status

• This module is guaranteed to have backward compatible 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.

Authors

• Jon Hawkesworth (@jhawkesworth)

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