file - Sets attributes of files

Author:Michael DeHaan

Synopsis

Sets attributes of files, symlinks, and directories, or removes files/symlinks/directories. Many other modules support the same options as the file module - including copy, template, and assemble.

Options

parameter required default choices comments
force no no
  • yes
  • no
force the creation of the symlinks in two cases: the source file does not exist (but will appear later); the destination exists and is a file (so, we need to unlink the "path" file and create symlink to the "src" file in place of it).
group no
    name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown
    mode no
      mode the file or directory should be, such as 0644 as would be fed to chmod
      owner no
        name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown
        path yes
          path to the file being managed. Aliases: dest, name
          recurse no no
          • yes
          • no
          recursively set the specified file attributes (applies only to state=directory) (added in Ansible 1.1)
          selevel no s0
            level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. _default feature works as for seuser.
            serole no
              role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
              setype no
                type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
                seuser no
                  user part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available
                  src no
                    path of the file to link to (applies only to state=link). Will accept absolute, relative and nonexisting paths. Relative paths are not expanded.
                    state no file
                    • file
                    • link
                    • directory
                    • hard
                    • touch
                    • absent
                    If directory, all immediate subdirectories will be created if they do not exist, since 1.7 they will be created with the supplied permissions. If file, the file will NOT be created if it does not exist, see the copy or template module if you want that behavior. If link, the symbolic link will be created or changed. Use hard for hardlinks. If absent, directories will be recursively deleted, and files or symlinks will be unlinked. If touch (new in 1.4), an empty file will be created if the c(path) does not exist, while an existing file or directory will receive updated file access and modification times (similar to the way `touch` works from the command line).

                    Examples


                    - file: path=/etc/foo.conf owner=foo group=foo mode=0644
                    - file: src=/file/to/link/to dest=/path/to/symlink owner=foo group=foo state=link
                    - file: src=/tmp/{{ item.path }} dest={{ item.dest }} state=link
                      with_items:
                        - { path: 'x', dest: 'y' }
                        - { path: 'z', dest: 'k' }

                    Note

                    See also copy, template, assemble

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