Ansible: copy a directory content to another directory
AnsibleAnsible 2.xAnsible Problem Overview
I am trying to copy the content of dist directory to nginx directory.
- name: copy html file
copy: src=/home/vagrant/dist/ dest=/usr/share/nginx/html/
But when I execute the playbook it throws an error:
TASK [NGINX : copy html file] **************************************************
fatal: [172.16.8.200]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed": true, "msg": "attempted to take checksum of directory:/home/vagrant/dist/"}
How can I copy a directory that has another directory and a file inside?
Ansible Solutions
Solution 1 - Ansible
You could use the synchronize module. The example from the documentation:
# Synchronize two directories on one remote host.
- synchronize:
src: /first/absolute/path
dest: /second/absolute/path
delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
This has the added benefit that it will be more efficient for large/many files.
Solution 2 - Ansible
EDIT: This solution worked when the question was posted. Later Ansible deprecated recursive copying with remote_src
Ansible Copy module by default copies files/dirs from control machine to remote machine. If you want to copy files/dirs in remote machine and if you have Ansible 2.0, set remote_src
to yes
- name: copy html file
copy: src=/home/vagrant/dist/ dest=/usr/share/nginx/html/ remote_src=yes directory_mode=yes
Solution 3 - Ansible
Resolved answer: To copy a directory's content to another directory I use the next:
- name: copy consul_ui files
command: cp -r /home/{{ user }}/dist/{{ item }} /usr/share/nginx/html
with_items:
- "index.html"
- "static/"
It copies both items to the other directory. In the example, one of the items is a directory and the other is not. It works perfectly.
Solution 4 - Ansible
To copy a directory's content to another directory you CAN use ansibles copy
module:
- name: Copy content of directory 'files'
copy:
src: files/ # note the '/' <-- !!!
dest: /tmp/files/
From the docs about the src
parameter:
If (src!) path is a directory, it is copied recursively...
... if path ends with "/", only inside contents of that directory are copied to destination.
... if it does not end with "/", the directory itself with all contents is copied.
Solution 5 - Ansible
The simplest solution I've found to copy the contents of a folder without copying the folder itself is to use the following:
- name: Move directory contents
command: cp -r /<source_path>/. /<dest_path>/
This resolves @surfer190's follow-up question: > Hmmm what if you want to copy the entire contents? I noticed that * doesn't work – surfer190 Jul 23 '16 at 7:29
*
is a shell glob, in that it relies on your shell to enumerate all the files within the folder before running cp
, while the .
directly instructs cp
to get the directory contents (see https://askubuntu.com/questions/86822/how-can-i-copy-the-contents-of-a-folder-to-another-folder-in-a-different-directo)
Solution 6 - Ansible
Ansible remote_src does not support recursive copying.See [remote_src description in Ansible copy docs][1]
To recursively copy the contents of a folder and to make sure the task stays idempotent I usually do it this way:
- name: get file names to copy
command: "find /home/vagrant/dist -type f"
register: files_to_copy
- name: copy files
copy:
src: "{{ item }}"
dest: "/usr/share/nginx/html"
owner: nginx
group: nginx
remote_src: True
mode: 0644
with_items:
- "{{ files_to_copy.stdout_lines }}"
Downside is that the find command still shows up as 'changed'
[1]: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/copy_module.html "Ansible copy docs"
Solution 7 - Ansible
the ansible doc is quite clear https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/copy_module.html for parameter src it says the following:
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 behavior
is similar to the rsync command line tool.
So what you need is skip the / at the end of your src path.
- name: copy html file
copy: src=/home/vagrant/dist dest=/usr/share/nginx/html/
Solution 8 - Ansible
I found a workaround for recursive copying from remote to remote :
- name: List files in /usr/share/easy-rsa
find:
path: /usr/share/easy-rsa
recurse: yes
file_type: any
register: find_result
- name: Create the directories
file:
path: "{{ item.path | regex_replace('/usr/share/easy-rsa','/etc/easy-rsa') }}"
state: directory
mode: "{{ item.mode }}"
with_items:
- "{{ find_result.files }}"
when:
- item.isdir
- name: Copy the files
copy:
src: "{{ item.path }}"
dest: "{{ item.path | regex_replace('/usr/share/easy-rsa','/etc/easy-rsa') }}"
remote_src: yes
mode: "{{ item.mode }}"
with_items:
- "{{ find_result.files }}"
when:
- item.isdir == False
Solution 9 - Ansible
I got involved whole a day, too! and finally found the solution in shell
command instead of copy: or command: as below:
- hosts: remote-server-name
gather_facts: no
vars:
src_path: "/path/to/source/"
des_path: "/path/to/dest/"
tasks:
- name: Ansible copy files remote to remote
shell: 'cp -r {{ src_path }}/. {{ des_path }}'
strictly notice to:
- src_path and des_path end by
/
symbol - in shell command src_path ends by
.
which shows all content of directory - I used my remote-server-name both in hosts: and execute shell
section of jenkins, instead of
remote_src:
specifier in playbook.
I guess it is a good advice to run below command in Execute Shell section in jenkins:
ansible-playbook copy-payment.yml -i remote-server-name
Solution 10 - Ansible
Below worked for me,
-name: Upload html app directory to Deployment host
copy: src=/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/Demoapp/html dest=/var/www/ directory_mode=yes
Solution 11 - Ansible
This I found an ideal solution for copying file from Ansible server to remote.
copying yaml file
- hosts: localhost
user: {{ user }}
connection: ssh
become: yes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: Creation of directory on remote server
file:
path: /var/lib/jenkins/.aws
state: directory
mode: 0755
register: result
- debug:
var: result
- name: get file names to copy
command: "find conf/.aws -type f"
register: files_to_copy
- name: copy files
copy:
src: "{{ item }}"
dest: "/var/lib/jenkins/.aws"
owner: {{ user }}
group: {{ group }}
remote_src: True
mode: 0644
with_items:
- "{{ files_to_copy.stdout_lines }}"
Solution 12 - Ansible
How to copy directory and sub dirs's and files from ansible server to remote host
- name: copy nmonchart39 directory to {{ inventory_hostname }}
copy:
src: /home/ansib.usr.srv/automation/monitoring/nmonchart39
dest: /var/nmon/data
Where:
copy entire directory: src: /automation/monitoring/nmonchart39
copy directory contents src: nmonchart39/