Ansible – delete unmanaged files from directory

ansibleansible-template

I want to recursively copy over a directory and render all .j2 files in there as templates. For this I am currently using the following lines:

- template: >
            src=/src/conf.d/{{ item }}
            dest=/dest/conf.d/{{ item|replace('.j2','') }}
  with_lines: find /src/conf.d/ -type f -printf "%P\n"

Now I'm looking for a way to remove unmanaged files from this directory. For example if I remove a file/template from /src/conf.d/ I want Ansible to remove it from /dest/conf.d/ as well.

Is there some way to do this? I tried fiddling around with rsync --delete, but there I got a problem with the templates which get their suffix .j2 removed.

Best Answer

I'd do it like this, assuming a variable defined as 'managed_files' up top that is a list.

- shell: ls -1 /some/dir
  register: contents

- file: path=/some/dir/{{ item }} state=absent
  with_items: contents.stdout_lines
  when: item not in managed_files

Related Solutions

How to create a directory using Ansible

You want the file module. To create a directory, you need to specify the option state=directory :

- name: Creates directory
  file:
    path: /src/www
    state: directory

You can see other options at https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/file_module.html

Can the templates module handle multiple templates / directories

The template module itself runs the action on a single file, but you can use with_filetree to loop recursively over a specified path:

- name: Ensure directory structure exists
  file:
    path: '{{ templates_destination }}/{{ item.path }}'
    state: directory
  with_filetree: '{{ templates_source }}'
  when: item.state == 'directory'

- name: Ensure files are populated from templates
  template:
    src: '{{ item.src }}'
    dest: '{{ templates_destination }}/{{ item.path }}'
  with_filetree: '{{ templates_source }}'
  when: item.state == 'file'

And for templates in a single directory you can use with_fileglob.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to create a directory using Ansible

Can the templates module handle multiple templates / directories

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