You will need to create directories or folders in Ansible many times during may of the DevOps process. Although you could do create directories using shell or command module, ansible provides a better and safer method for creating directories using the ‘file’ module.
Ansible Directory Creation example
To create a directory using the file module, you need to set two parameters.
- Path(alias – name, dest) – This is the absolute path of the directory.
- State – You should give this as ‘directory.’ By default, the value is ‘file.’
For example, I need to create a directory ‘devops_directory’ in the path /tmp.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible create directory example
file:
path: /tmp/devops_directory
state: directory
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 07:19 devops_directory
If I execute the task again, since the directory is already present, nothing will be changed.
Changing the Permissions for a Directory in Ansible
In the above task, the directory will be created with the default permission. We can set the permissions using the ‘mode’ parameter. We can give it in two ways.
- the symbolic form like ‘u=rw,g=rw,o=rw’ -> This gives read and write permission to everyone.
- Octal numbers like ‘0777’ -> Read, write and execute permission to everyone
The following task sets the permission of already created devops_directory to ‘u=rw,g=wx,o=rwx.’
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible create directory with mode setting example
file:
path: /tmp/devops_directory
state: directory
mode: "u=rw,g=wx,o=rwx"
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp
drw--wxrwx 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 07:19 devops_directory
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ touch /tmp/devops_directory/test1
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/devops_directory/test1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mdtutorials2 mdtutorials2 0 Oct 4 09:35 /tmp/devops_directory/test1
You can see the permissions of the devops_directory has changed as given on the task.
But the files created inside that folder has the default permissions set.
Changing the Permissions for Directory and the files
You can modify the permissions of a directory and all the files inside also recursively. You can use the above task itself. You just have to add the recurse parameter and set it to ‘yes.’
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ touch /tmp/devops_directory/test2
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/devops_directory/test2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 4 09:44 /tmp/devops_directory/test2
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible set permission recursvely for a directory
file:
path: /tmp/devops_directory
state: directory
mode: "u=rw,g=wx,o=rwx"
recurse: yes
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/devops_directory/test2
-rw--wxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 4 09:48 /tmp/devops_directory/test2
Create multiple directories using with_items
You can also create multiple directories using the with_items statement in Ansible.
For example, to create three directories, devops_system1, devops_system2, and devops_system3, you can execute the following task
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible create multiple directory example
file:
path: "{{ item }}"
state: directory
with_items:
- '/tmp/devops_system1'
- '/tmp/devops_system2'
- '/tmp/devops_system3'
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system3
But what if you need to set the permission differently for each directory while using with_items.
In the following task, I am independently setting the modes for each directory.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible create directory with_items example
file:
path: "{{ item.dest }}"
mode: "{{item.mode}}"
state: directory
with_items:
- { dest: '/tmp/devops_system1', mode: '0777'}
- { dest: '/tmp/devops_system2', mode: '0707'}
- { dest: '/tmp/devops_system3', mode: '0575'}
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/
total 16
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system1
drwx---rwx 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system2
dr-xrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 09:59 devops_system3
Creating a local directory using local_action statement
You can also create a local directory in ansible using the ‘local_action’ statement along with the given examples.
For example, to create a directory ‘local_folder’ in the Ansible control machine.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible create local directory example
local_action:
module: file
path: /tmp/local_file
state: directory
Creating a directory with timestamp
There are scenarios when you need to attach a timestamp also with the directory name. You can use the ansible date fact for such scenarios. For more information on how to use the date fact in ansible refer to this post.
The following task will append the date also with the directory name.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible set permission recursvely for a directory
file:
path: "/tmp/devops_directory{{ansible_date_time.date}}"
state: directory
mode: "u=rw,g=wx,o=rwx"
recurse: yes
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp
drw--wxrwx 2 root root 4096 Oct 4 10:56 devops_directory2017-10-04
Deleting a Directory in Ansible
You can delete a directory by setting the state parameter to absent. This will remove the directory and all its contents.
For example, to remove the ‘/tmp/devops/’ directory, you can execute the following task.
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/devops_directory/
total 0
-rw--wxrwx 1 mdtutorials2 mdtutorials2 0 Oct 4 09:35 test1
-rw--wxrwx 1 mdtutorials2 mdtutorials2 0 Oct 4 09:48 test2
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: ansible remove directory example
file:
path: /tmp/devops_directory
state: absent
output
======
mdtutorials2@system01:~$ ls -lrt /tmp/devops_directory/
ls: cannot access '/tmp/devops_directory/': No such file or directory
