ansible.builtin.stat module – Retrieve file or file system status

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name stat even without specifying the collections: keyword. However, we recommend you use the FQCN for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

  • Retrieves facts for a file similar to the Linux/Unix ‘stat’ command.

  • For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_stat module instead.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

checksum_algorithm

aliases: checksum, checksum_algo

string

Algorithm to determine checksum of file.

Will throw an error if the host is unable to use specified algorithm.

The remote host has to support the hashing method specified, md5 can be unavailable if the host is FIPS-140 compliant.

Choices:

  • "md5"

  • "sha1" ← (default)

  • "sha224"

  • "sha256"

  • "sha384"

  • "sha512"

follow

boolean

Whether to follow symlinks.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

get_attributes

aliases: attr, attributes

boolean

Get file attributes using lsattr tool if present.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

get_checksum

boolean

Whether to return a checksum of the file.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

get_mime

aliases: mime, mime_type, mime-type

boolean

Use file magic and return data about the nature of the file. this uses the ‘file’ utility found on most Linux/Unix systems.

This will add both mime_type and charset fields to the return, if possible.

In Ansible 2.3 this option changed from mime to get_mime and the default changed to yes.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

path

aliases: dest, name

path / required

The full path of the file/object to get the facts of.

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

check_mode

Support: full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target

diff_mode

Support: none

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform

Platform: posix

Target OS/families that can be operated against

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.file

Manage files and file properties.

ansible.windows.win_stat

Get information about Windows files.

Examples

# Obtain the stats of /etc/foo.conf, and check that the file still belongs
# to 'root'. Fail otherwise.
- name: Get stats of a file
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /etc/foo.conf
  register: st
- name: Fail if the file does not belong to 'root'
  ansible.builtin.fail:
    msg: "Whoops! file ownership has changed"
  when: st.stat.pw_name != 'root'

# Determine if a path exists and is a symlink. Note that if the path does
# not exist, and we test sym.stat.islnk, it will fail with an error. So
# therefore, we must test whether it is defined.
# Run this to understand the structure, the skipped ones do not pass the
# check performed by 'when'
- name: Get stats of the FS object
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /path/to/something
  register: sym

- name: Print a debug message
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "islnk isn't defined (path doesn't exist)"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is not defined

- name: Print a debug message
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "islnk is defined (path must exist)"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined

- name: Print a debug message
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "Path exists and is a symlink"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined and sym.stat.islnk

- name: Print a debug message
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "Path exists and isn't a symlink"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined and sym.stat.islnk == False


# Determine if a path exists and is a directory.  Note that we need to test
# both that p.stat.isdir actually exists, and also that it's set to true.
- name: Get stats of the FS object
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /path/to/something
  register: p
- name: Print a debug message
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "Path exists and is a directory"
  when: p.stat.isdir is defined and p.stat.isdir

- name: Do not calculate the checksum
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /path/to/myhugefile
    get_checksum: no

- name: Use sha256 to calculate the checksum
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /path/to/something
    checksum_algorithm: sha256

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

stat

complex

Dictionary containing all the stat data, some platforms might add additional fields.

Returned: success

atime

float

Time of last access

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1424348972.575

attributes

list / elements=string

list of file attributes

Returned: success, path exists and user can execute the path

Sample: ["immutable", "extent"]

charset

string

file character set or encoding

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats and installed python supports it and the mime option was true, will return unknown on error.

Sample: "us-ascii"

checksum

string

hash of the file

Returned: success, path exists, user can read stats, path supports hashing and supplied checksum algorithm is available

Sample: "50ba294cdf28c0d5bcde25708df53346825a429f"

ctime

float

Time of last metadata update or creation (depends on OS)

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1424348972.575

dev

integer

Device the inode resides on

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 33

executable

boolean

Tells you if the invoking user has execute permission on the path

Returned: success, path exists and user can execute the path

Sample: false

exists

boolean

If the destination path actually exists or not

Returned: success

Sample: true

gid

integer

Numeric id representing the group of the owner

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1003

gr_name

string

Group name of owner

Returned: success, path exists, user can read stats, owner group can be looked up and installed python supports it

Sample: "www-data"

inode

integer

Inode number of the path

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 12758

isblk

boolean

Tells you if the path is a block device

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

ischr

boolean

Tells you if the path is a character device

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

isdir

boolean

Tells you if the path is a directory

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

isfifo

boolean

Tells you if the path is a named pipe

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

isgid

boolean

Tells you if the invoking user’s group id matches the owner’s group id

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

islnk

boolean

Tells you if the path is a symbolic link

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

isreg

boolean

Tells you if the path is a regular file

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

issock

boolean

Tells you if the path is a unix domain socket

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

isuid

boolean

Tells you if the invoking user’s id matches the owner’s id

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

lnk_source

string

Target of the symlink normalized for the remote filesystem

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats and the path is a symbolic link

Sample: "/home/foobar/21102015-1445431274-908472971"

lnk_target

string

Target of the symlink. Note that relative paths remain relative

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats and the path is a symbolic link

Sample: "../foobar/21102015-1445431274-908472971"

md5

string

md5 hash of the file; this will be removed in Ansible 2.9 in favor of the checksum return value

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats and path supports hashing and md5 is supported

Sample: "f88fa92d8cf2eeecf4c0a50ccc96d0c0"

mimetype

string

file magic data or mime-type

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats and installed python supports it and the mime option was true, will return unknown on error.

Sample: "application/pdf; charset=binary"

mode

string

Unix permissions of the file in octal representation as a string

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: "1755"

mtime

float

Time of last modification

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1424348972.575

integer

Number of links to the inode (hard links)

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1

path

string

The full path of the file/object to get the facts of

Returned: success and if path exists

Sample: "/path/to/file"

pw_name

string

User name of owner

Returned: success, path exists, user can read stats, owner name can be looked up and installed python supports it

Sample: "httpd"

readable

boolean

Tells you if the invoking user has the right to read the path

Returned: success, path exists and user can read the path

Sample: false

rgrp

boolean

Tells you if the owner’s group has read permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

roth

boolean

Tells you if others have read permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

rusr

boolean

Tells you if the owner has read permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

size

integer

Size in bytes for a plain file, amount of data for some special files

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 203

uid

integer

Numeric id representing the file owner

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: 1003

version

string

The version/generation attribute of a file according to the filesystem

Returned: success, path exists, user can execute the path, lsattr is available and filesystem supports

Sample: "381700746"

wgrp

boolean

Tells you if the owner’s group has write permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

woth

boolean

Tells you if others have write permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: false

writeable

boolean

Tells you if the invoking user has the right to write the path

Returned: success, path exists and user can write the path

Sample: false

wusr

boolean

Tells you if the owner has write permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

xgrp

boolean

Tells you if the owner’s group has execute permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

xoth

boolean

Tells you if others have execute permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

xusr

boolean

Tells you if the owner has execute permission

Returned: success, path exists and user can read stats

Sample: true

Authors

  • Bruce Pennypacker (@bpennypacker)