ansible.builtin.exists test – does the path exist, follow symlinks

Note

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

New in Ansible 2.5

Synopsis

• Check if the provided path maps to an existing filesystem object on the controller (localhost).

• Follows symlinks and checks the target of the symlink instead of the link itself, use the link or link_exists tests to check on the link.

Input

This describes the input of the test, the value before is ansible.builtin.exists or is not ansible.builtin.exists.

Parameter	Comments
Input path	a path

Examples

vars:
  my_etc_hosts_exists: "{{ '/etc/hosts' is exist }}"
  list_of_local_files_to_copy_to_remote: "{{ list_of_all_possible_files | select('exists') }}"

Return Value

Key	Description
Return value boolean	Returns True if the path corresponds to an existing filesystem object on the controller (after following symlinks), False if otherwise. Returned: success

Authors

• Ansible Core

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.

Collection links

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