CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxansibledevopsansible-facts
Vikas Deore
Vikas Deore

Reputation: 11

Delete specific folder/files in all the directories of the server from the Ansible Playbook

I want to remove the all "test" folders inside the subdirectories of server. Like below is the path of "test" folders. There are multiple directories in home folder, So, I cant specify all the paths in playbook.

Path: /home/*/test

I have write the below playbook for this but it doesnt work.

tasks:
   - name: Delete the folder
     file:
       path: "{{ item }}"
       state: absent
     with_items:
       - "/home/*/test"

Could you please let me know the solution for it..

I have tried to use file_glob but doesn't work. I want to delete the test folders from all the subdirectories.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 45

Answers (1)

Vladimir Botka
Vladimir Botka

Reputation: 68034

Use the module find. For example, given the tree

shell> tree /tmp/home/
/tmp/home/
├── a
├── b
│   └── test
└── c
    └── test

Declare the list of the paths

  test_dirs: "{{ out.files|map(attribute='path') }}"

Then, the task

    - find:
        paths: /tmp/home
        file_type: directory
        patterns: test
        recurse: true
      register: out

gives

  test_dirs:
  - /tmp/home/c/test
  - /tmp/home/b/test

Use the list to delete the directories

    - file:
        path: "{{ item }}"
        state: absent
      loop: "{{ test_dirs }}"

shell> tree /tmp/home/
/tmp/home/
├── a
├── b
└── c

Example of a complete playbook for testing

- hosts: localhost

  vars:

    test_dirs: "{{ out.files|map(attribute='path') }}"

  tasks:

    - find:
        paths: /tmp/home
        file_type: directory
        patterns: test
        recurse: true
      register: out
    - debug:
        var: test_dirs

    - file:
        path: "{{ item }}"
        state: absent
      loop: "{{ test_dirs }}"

Upvotes: 1

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