ansible.builtin.file module – Manage files and file properties

https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/file_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 file even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.file for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

Parameters

Attributes

See Also

Examples

Return Values

Synopsis Set attributes of files, directories, or symlinks and their targets.

Alternatively, remove files, symlinks or directories.

Many other modules support the same options as the ansible.builtin.file module - including ansible.builtin.copy, ansible.builtin.template, and ansible.builtin.assemble.

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

Parameters Parameter

Comments

access_time string

added in Ansible 2.7

This parameter indicates the time the file’s access time should be set to.

Should be preserve when no modification is required, YYYYMMDDHHMM.SS when using default time format, or now.

Default is None meaning that preserve is the default for state=[file,directory,link,hard] and now is default for state=touch.

access_time_format string

added in Ansible 2.7

When used with access_time, indicates the time format that must be used.

Based on default Python format (see time.strftime doc).

Default: “%Y%m%d%H%M.%S”

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.

follow boolean

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

follow=yes and state=link can modify src when combined with parameters such as mode.

Previous to Ansible 2.5, this was false by default.

While creating a symlink with a non-existent destination, set follow=false to avoid a warning message related to permission issues. The warning message is added to notify the user that we can not set permissions to the non-existent destination.

Choices:

false

true ← (default)

force boolean

Force the creation of the links in two cases: if the link type is symbolic and 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 a link to the src file in place of it).

Choices:

false ← (default)

true

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.

mode any

The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.

For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must give Ansible enough information to parse them correctly. For consistent results, quote octal numbers (for example, ‘644’ or ‘1777’) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, 0755) works sometimes, but can fail in loops and some other circumstances.

Giving Ansible a number without following either 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).

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

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

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

modification_time string

added in Ansible 2.7

This parameter indicates the time the file’s modification time should be set to.

Should be preserve when no modification is required, YYYYMMDDHHMM.SS when using default time format, or now.

Default is None meaning that preserve is the default for state=[file,directory,link,hard] and now is default for state=touch.

modification_time_format string

added in Ansible 2.7

When used with modification_time, indicates the time format that must be used.

Based on default Python format (see time.strftime doc).

Default: “%Y%m%d%H%M.%S”

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.

path aliases: dest, name

path / required

Path to the file being managed.

recurse boolean

Recursively set the specified file attributes on directory contents.

This applies only when state is set to directory.

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

Path of the file to link to.

This applies only to state=link and state=hard.

For state=link, this will also accept a non-existing path.

Relative paths are relative to the file being created (path) which is how the Unix command ln -s SRC DEST treats relative paths.

state string

If absent, directories will be recursively deleted, and files or symlinks will be unlinked. In the case of a directory, if diff is declared, you will see the files and folders deleted listed under path_contents. Note that absent will not cause ansible.builtin.file to fail if the path does not exist as the state did not change.

If directory, all intermediate subdirectories will be created if they do not exist. Since Ansible 1.7 they will be created with the supplied permissions.

If file, with no other options, returns the current state of path.

If file, even with other options (such as mode), the file will be modified if it exists but will NOT be created if it does not exist. Set to touch or use the ansible.builtin.copy or ansible.builtin.template module if you want to create the file if it does not exist.

If hard, the hard link will be created or changed.

If link, the symbolic link will be created or changed.

If touch (new in 1.4), an empty file will be created if the file 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).

Default is the current state of the file if it exists, directory if recurse=yes, or file otherwise.

Choices:

“absent”

“directory”

“file”

“hard”

“link”

“touch”

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

Attributes Attribute

Support

Description

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 partial

permissions and ownership will be shown but file contents on absent/touch will not.

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

See Also See also

ansible.builtin.assemble Assemble configuration files from fragments.

ansible.builtin.copy Copy files to remote locations.

ansible.builtin.stat Retrieve file or file system status.

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

ansible.windows.win_file Creates, touches or removes files or directories.

Examples

  • name: Change file ownership, group and permissions ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo.conf owner: foo group: foo mode: ‘0644’

  • name: Give insecure permissions to an existing file ansible.builtin.file: path: /work owner: root group: root mode: ‘1777’

  • name: Create a symbolic link ansible.builtin.file: src: /file/to/link/to dest: /path/to/symlink owner: foo group: foo state: link

  • name: Create two hard links ansible.builtin.file: src: ‘/tmp/{{ item.src }}’ dest: ‘{{ item.dest }}’ state: hard loop:
    • { src: x, dest: y }
    • { src: z, dest: k }

  • name: Touch a file, using symbolic modes to set the permissions (equivalent to 0644) ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo.conf state: touch mode: u=rw,g=r,o=r

  • name: Touch the same file, but add/remove some permissions ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo.conf state: touch mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx

  • name: Touch again the same file, but do not change times this makes the task idempotent ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo.conf state: touch mode: u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx modification_time: preserve access_time: preserve

  • name: Create a directory if it does not exist ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/some_directory state: directory mode: ‘0755’

  • name: Update modification and access time of given file ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/some_file state: file modification_time: now access_time: now

  • name: Set access time based on seconds from epoch value ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/another_file state: file access_time: ‘{{ “%Y%m%d%H%M.%S” | strftime(stat_var.stat.atime) }}’

  • name: Recursively change ownership of a directory ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo state: directory recurse: yes owner: foo group: foo

  • name: Remove file (delete file) ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo.txt state: absent

  • name: Recursively remove directory ansible.builtin.file: path: /etc/foo state: absent Return Values Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

dest string

Destination file/path, equal to the value passed to path.

Returned: state=touch, state=hard, state=link

Sample: “/path/to/file.txt”

path string

Destination file/path, equal to the value passed to path.

Returned: state=absent, state=directory, state=file

Sample: “/path/to/file.txt”

Authors Ansible Core Team

Michael DeHaan

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

Updated: