Ansible is a powerful automation and configuration management tool that allows you to easily manage and configure your infrastructure. One of the many tasks that Ansible can perform is copying files from one location to another. In this article, we will discuss how to use the ansible copy module to copy only changed or new files.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, there are a few things you will need to have in place:
- Ansible installed on your control node
- A target host or group of hosts to copy files to
- The files you want to copy
The copy Module
The ansible copy module is used to copy files from the control node to the target hosts. It has a number of options that allow you to customize the copy process, including the ability to only copy changed or new files.
Syntax
The syntax for the copy module is as follows:
- name: Copy a file
copy:
src: /path/to/source/file
dest: /path/to/destination/
In this example, the src parameter specifies the path to the source file on the control node, and the dest parameter specifies the path to the destination on the target host. When this task is run, Ansible will copy the file from the source to the destination.
Copying Only Changed or New Files
To copy only changed or new files, you can use the force and validate options of the copy module. The force option tells Ansible to always copy the file, even if it already exists on the target host. The validate option tells Ansible to check the MD5 sum of the file on the target host before copying it. If the MD5 sums match, Ansible will not copy the file.
Here is an example of how to use these options:
- name: Copy a file
copy:
src: /path/to/source/file
dest: /path/to/destination/
force: yes
validate: 'md5sum'
In this example, the force option is set to yes, which tells Ansible to always copy the file. The validate option is set to 'md5sum', which tells Ansible to check the MD5 sum of the file on the target host before copying it. If the MD5 sums match, Ansible will not copy the file.
Playbooks
Playbooks are Ansible's way of defining a series of tasks to be executed. You can use playbooks to define the tasks that need to be executed to copy only changed or new files. Here is an example of a playbook that copies a file to a target host and only copies it if it has changed or is new:
---
- hosts: target_host
tasks:
- name: Copy a file
copy:
src: /path/to/source/file
dest: /path/to/destination/
force: yes
validate: 'md5sum'
In this example, the hosts parameter specifies the target host or group of hosts to copy the file to. The tasks parameter specifies the tasks that need to be executed. In this case, there is only one task, which is to copy the file. The copy module is used to copy the file, and the force and validate options are set to ensure that only changed or new files are copied.
In this article, we have discussed how to use the ansible copy module to copy only changed or new files. We have discussed the force and validate options, and how to use them in a playbook. With this knowledge, you should be able to easily copy only changed or new files with Ansible.
References
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| Ansible Documentation: Copy Module | https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/copy_module.html |
| Ansible Playbooks | https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks.html |