How to check if a file exists in Ansible?
I’m going to show you a live Playbook and some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot
Ansible check file exists
Today we’re talking about the Ansible module stat.
The full name is ansible.builtin.stat, which means that is part of the collection of modules “builtin” with ansible and shipped with it.
It’s a module pretty stable and out for years.
It works in a different variety of operating systems.
It retrieves a file entry or a file system status.
For Windows target use the ansible.windows.win_stat module instead.
Mandatory Parameters
- path string
Main Return Values
- stat complex - exists
The only mandatory parameter is “path” which is the filesystem full path of the object to check. The module returns a complex object, the property that is interesting for us is “exists”. This attribute is “true” if the object exists.
Playbook
Let’s jump in a real-life playbook to check if a file exists with Ansible.
code
- file_exist.yml
---
- name: check if a file exist
hosts: all
become: false
vars:
myfile: /home/devops/test.txt
tasks:
- name: check if a file exists
ansible.builtin.stat:
path: "{{ myfile }}"
register: file_data
- name: report file exists
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "The file {{ myfile }} exist"
when: file_data.stat.exists
- name: report file not exists
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "The file {{ myfile }} doesn't exist"
when: not file_data.stat.exists
Conclusion
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