Create Hard Links in Linux with Ansible Playbooks

Name: Ansible Automation Platform By Example
Author: Luca Berton

Learn to create hard links in Linux using Ansible’s file module. Follow our step-by-step guide and live Playbook example for effective management.

Create Hard Links in Linux with Ansible Playbooks

December 14, 2021
Posted by Luca Berton
ansible, file, module, hard, RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, link

How to create a hard link in Linux with 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 creates a hard link

ansible.builtin.file Manage files and file properties

Today we’re talking about the Ansible module file. The full name is ansible.builtin.file, 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 manages files and file properties. For a symlink (or softlink) use see the following parameters of Ansible file module. For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_file module instead.

Parameters

src string - symlink path
dest string - destination file path
state string - file/absent/directory/link/hard/touch
mode/owner/group - permission
setype/seuser/selevel - SELinux

This module has some parameters to perform any tasks. The two required fields are “src” and “dest” which specify the filesystem paths of the har link and the target file. The state defines the type of object we are modifying, the default is “file” but for our use case, we need the “link” option. Let me highlight also the permission and SELinux parameters.

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Playbook

Let’s jump into a real-life playbook on how to create a symbolic link with Ansible.

code

create_hardlink.yml

---
- name: file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    mylink: "~/link"
    myfile: "~/example.txt"
  tasks:
    - name: Creating hardlink
      ansible.builtin.file:
        src: "{{ myfile }}"
        dest: "{{ mylink }}"
        state: hard

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory create\ link/hardlink.yml
PLAY [file module demo] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [Creating hardlink] **************************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

before execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al
total 16
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 111 Dec  1 15:07 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 224 Dec  1 15:07 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
[devops@demo ~]$ echo test > example.txt
[devops@demo ~]$ cat example.txt
test
[devops@demo ~]$

after execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al
total 24
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 142 Dec  1 15:09 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 276 Dec  1 15:08 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
-rw-r--r--. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 example.txt
-rw-r--r--. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 link
[devops@demo ~]$ cat link 
test
[devops@demo ~]$ cat example.txt 
test
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al 
total 24
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 142 Dec  1 15:09 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 276 Dec  1 15:08 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
-rw-r--r--. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 example.txt
-rw-r--r--. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 link
[devops@demo ~]$ chmod 777 link
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al 
total 24
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 142 Dec  1 15:09 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 276 Dec  1 15:08 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 example.txt
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:08 link
[devops@demo ~]$ touch link
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al
total 24
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 142 Dec  1 15:09 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 276 Dec  1 15:08 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:10 example.txt
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:10 link
[devops@demo ~]$ touch link
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -al 
total 24
drwx------. 4 devops wheel 142 Dec  1 15:09 .
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root   root   35 Nov 28 16:46 ..
drwx------. 3 devops wheel  17 Nov 28 16:46 .ansible
-rw-------. 1 devops wheel 359 Dec  1 15:11 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel  18 Dec  4  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 141 Dec  4  2020 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 devops wheel 376 Dec  4  2020 .bashrc
drwx------. 2 devops wheel  29 Nov 28 16:46 .ssh
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:19 example.txt
-rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel   5 Dec  1 15:19 link
[devops@demo ~]$ ls -li *
134907033 -rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel 5 Dec  1 15:19 example.txt
134907033 -rwxrwxrwx. 2 devops wheel 5 Dec  1 15:19 link
[devops@demo ~]$

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know how to create a hard link in the Linux filesystem with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.

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