ansible.builtin.copy module – Copy files to remote locations

https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/copy_module.html

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name copy even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.copy for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

Parameters

Attributes

Notes

See Also

Examples

Return Values

Synopsis The ansible.builtin.copy module copies a file or a directory structure from the local or remote machine to a location on the remote machine. File system meta-information (permissions, ownership, etc.) may be set, even when the file or directory already exists on the target system. Some meta-information may be copied on request.

Get meta-information with the ansible.builtin.stat module.

Set meta-information with the ansible.builtin.file module.

Use the ansible.builtin.fetch module to copy files from remote locations to the local box.

If you need variable interpolation in copied files, use the ansible.builtin.template module. Using a variable with the content parameter produces unpredictable results.

For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_copy module instead.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters Parameter

Comments

attributes aliases: attr

string

The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.

To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system.

This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.

The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

backup boolean

Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.

Choices:

false ← (default)

true

checksum string

SHA1 checksum of the file being transferred.

Used to validate that the copy of the file was successful.

If this is not provided, ansible will use the local calculated checksum of the src file.

content string

When used instead of src, sets the contents of a file directly to the specified value.

Works only when dest is a file. Creates the file if it does not exist.

For advanced formatting or if content contains a variable, use the ansible.builtin.template module.

decrypt boolean

This option controls the auto-decryption of source files using vault.

Choices:

false

true ← (default)

dest path / required

Remote absolute path where the file should be copied to.

If src is a directory, this must be a directory too.

If dest is a non-existent path and if either dest ends with / or src is a directory, dest is created.

If dest is a relative path, the starting directory is determined by the remote host.

If src and dest are files, the parent directory of dest is not created and the task fails if it does not already exist.

directory_mode any

Set the access permissions of newly created directories to the given mode. Permissions on existing directories do not change.

See mode for the syntax of accepted values.

The target system’s defaults determine permissions when this parameter is not set.

follow boolean

This flag indicates that filesystem links in the destination, if they exist, should be followed.

Choices:

false ← (default)

true

force boolean

Influence whether the remote file must always be replaced.

If true, the remote file will be replaced when contents are different than the source.

If false, the file will only be transferred if the destination does not exist.

Choices:

false

true ← (default)

group string

Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current group of the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

local_follow boolean

This flag indicates that filesystem links in the source tree, if they exist, should be followed.

Choices:

false

true

mode any

The permissions of the destination file or directory.

For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible’s YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like 0644 or 01777) or quote it (like ‘644’ or ‘1777’) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Giving Ansible a number without following one of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.

As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).

As of Ansible 2.3, the mode may also be the special string preserve.

preserve means that the file will be given the same permissions as the source file.

When doing a recursive copy, see also directory_mode.

If mode is not specified and the destination file does not exist, the default umask on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created file.

If mode is not specified and the destination file does exist, the mode of the existing file will be used.

Specifying mode is the best way to ensure files are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.

owner string

Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

Specifying a numeric username will be assumed to be a user ID and not a username. Avoid numeric usernames to avoid this confusion.

remote_src boolean

Influence whether src needs to be transferred or already is present remotely.

If false, it will search for src on the controller node.

If true, it will search for src on the managed (remote) node.

remote_src supports recursive copying as of version 2.8.

remote_src only works with mode=preserve as of version 2.6.

Auto-decryption of files does not work when remote_src=yes.

Choices:

false ← (default)

true

selevel string

The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range.

When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.

serole string

The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.

setype string

The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.

seuser string

The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

By default it uses the system policy, where applicable.

When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.

src path

Local path to a file to copy to the remote server.

This can be absolute or relative.

If path is a directory, it is copied recursively. In this case, if path ends with /, only inside contents of that directory are copied to destination. Otherwise, if it does not end with /, the directory itself with all contents is copied. This behaviour is similar to the rsync command line tool.

unsafe_writes boolean

Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem object.

By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem objects, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted filesystem objects, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.

This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating filesystem objects when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn’t force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).

IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.

Choices:

false ← (default)

true

validate string

The validation command to run before copying the updated file into the final destination.

A temporary file path is used to validate, passed in through %s which must be present as in the examples below.

Also, the command is passed securely so shell features such as expansion and pipes will not work.

For an example on how to handle more complex validation than what this option provides, see handling complex validation.

Attributes Attribute

Support

Description

action full

Indicates this has a corresponding action plugin so some parts of the options can be executed on the controller

async none

Supports being used with the async keyword

bypass_host_loop none

Forces a ‘global’ task that does not execute per host, this bypasses per host templating and serial, throttle and other loop considerations

Conditionals will work as if run_once is being used, variables used will be from the first available host

This action will not work normally outside of lockstep strategies

check_mode full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.

diff_mode full

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform Platform: posix

Target OS/families that can be operated against

safe_file_operations full

Uses Ansible’s strict file operation functions to ensure proper permissions and avoid data corruption

vault full

Can automatically decrypt Ansible vaulted files

Notes Note

The ansible.builtin.copy module recursively copy facility does not scale to lots (>hundreds) of files.

See Also See also

ansible.builtin.assemble Assemble configuration files from fragments.

ansible.builtin.fetch Fetch files from remote nodes.

ansible.builtin.file Manage files and file properties.

ansible.builtin.template Template a file out to a target host.

ansible.posix.synchronise A wrapper around rsync to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy.

ansible.windows.win_copy Copies files to remote locations on windows hosts.

Examples

  • name: Copy file with owner and permissions ansible.builtin.copy: src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf dest: /etc/foo.conf owner: foo group: foo mode: ‘0644’

  • name: Copy file with owner and permission, using symbolic representation ansible.builtin.copy: src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf dest: /etc/foo.conf owner: foo group: foo mode: u=rw,g=r,o=r

  • name: Another symbolic mode example, adding some permissions and removing others ansible.builtin.copy: src: /srv/myfiles/foo.conf dest: /etc/foo.conf owner: foo group: foo mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx

  • name: Copy a new “ntp.conf” file into place, backing up the original if it differs from the copied version ansible.builtin.copy: src: /mine/ntp.conf dest: /etc/ntp.conf owner: root group: root mode: ‘0644’ backup: yes

  • name: Copy a new “sudoers” file into place, after passing validation with visudo ansible.builtin.copy: src: /mine/sudoers dest: /etc/sudoers validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

  • name: Copy a “sudoers” file on the remote machine for editing ansible.builtin.copy: src: /etc/sudoers dest: /etc/sudoers.edit remote_src: yes validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

  • name: Copy using inline content ansible.builtin.copy: content: ‘# This file was moved to /etc/other.conf’ dest: /etc/mine.conf

  • name: If follow=yes, /path/to/file will be overwritten by contents of foo.conf ansible.builtin.copy: src: /etc/foo.conf dest: /path/to/link # link to /path/to/file follow: yes

  • name: If follow=no, /path/to/link will become a file and be overwritten by contents of foo.conf ansible.builtin.copy: src: /etc/foo.conf dest: /path/to/link # link to /path/to/file follow: no Return Values Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

backup_file string

Name of backup file created.

Returned: changed and if backup=yes

Sample: “/path/to/file.txt.2015-02-12@22:09~”

checksum string

SHA1 checksum of the file after running copy.

Returned: success

Sample: “6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827”

dest string

Destination file/path.

Returned: success

Sample: “/path/to/file.txt”

gid integer

Group id of the file, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: 100

group string

Group of the file, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: “httpd”

md5sum string

MD5 checksum of the file after running copy.

Returned: when supported

Sample: “2a5aeecc61dc98c4d780b14b330e3282”

mode string

Permissions of the target, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: “0644”

owner string

Owner of the file, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: “httpd”

size integer

Sise of the target, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: 1220

src string

Source file used for the copy on the target machine.

Returned: changed

Sample: “/home/httpd/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1423796390.97-147729857856000/source”

state string

State of the target, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: “file”

uid integer

Owner id of the file, after execution.

Returned: success

Sample: 100

Authors Ansible Core Team

Michael DeHaan

Collection links Issue Tracker Repository (Sources) Communication © Copyright Ansible project contributors. Last updated on Dec 29, 2025.

Updated: