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.

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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