Verify File Existence on Windows with Ansible

How to Check if a file exists on Windows-like systems with Ansible?

I'm going to show you a live Playbook and some simple Ansible code. I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot.

See also: Ansible win_file Module: Create Directory on Windows Hosts (Guide)

Ansible check file exists on Windows-like systems

• ansible.windows.win_stat • Get information about Windows files

Today we're talking about the Ansible module win_stat. The full name is ansible.windows.win_stat, which means that is part of the collection of modules specialized to interact with Windows target host. It's a module pretty stable and out for years. It works in Windows and Windows Server operating systems. It gets information about Windows files. For Linux target use the ansible.builtin.stat module instead.

Parameters & Return Values

Mandatory Parameters

• path string

Main Return Values

• stat complex - exists

The only mandatory parameter is "path" which is the filesystem full path of the object to check. You could also retrieve the checksum of the file in the most popular hash algorithm, just in case. The module returns a complex object, the property that is interesting for us is "exists". This attribute is "true" if the object exists.

See also: Ansible win_file Module: Create & Manage Files on Windows (Guide)

Links

• ansible.windows.win_stat

## Playbook

How to check if the file "example.txt" exists on the Desktop of the user on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook.

code

---
- name: check if a file exist
  hosts: all
  vars:
    myfile: 'C:\Users\vagrant\Desktop\example.txt'
  tasks:
    - name: check if a file exist
      ansible.windows.win_stat:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
      register: file_data
    - name: report file exist
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "The file {{ myfile }} exist"
      when: file_data.stat.exists
    - name: report file not exist
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "The file {{ myfile }} doesn't exist"
      when: not file_data.stat.exists

file doesn't exist execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory check\ file\ exists/file_exist_windows.yml
PLAY [check if a file exist] **********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [check if a file exist] **********************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [report file exist] **************************************************************************
skipping: [WindowsServer]
TASK [report file not exist] **********************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer] => {
    "msg": "The file C:\\Users\\vagrant\\Desktop\\example.txt doesn't exist"
}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=1    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

file exist execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory check\ file\ exists/file_exist_windows.yml
PLAY [check if a file exist] **********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [check if a file exist] **********************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [report file exist] **************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer] => {
    "msg": "The file C:\\Users\\vagrant\\Desktop\\example.txt exist"
}
TASK [report file not exist] **********************************************************************
skipping: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=1    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Distinguish a File from a Directory

stat.exists is true for both files and directories. When you need to be sure the path is a file (not a folder with the same name), check stat.isdir:

    - name: Fail if the path is a directory, not a file
      ansible.builtin.fail:
        msg: "{{ myfile }} is a directory, expected a file"
      when: file_data.stat.exists and file_data.stat.isdir

See also: Ansible win_unzip Module: Extract ZIP Archives on Windows (Guide)

Retrieve the File Checksum

By default win_stat returns a SHA1 checksum of the file, which is handy for verifying that a deployed file matches an expected version. Choose the algorithm with checksum_algorithm (md5, sha1, sha256, sha384, sha512), or skip hashing on large files with get_checksum: false to speed up the task:

    - name: Get the SHA256 checksum of a file
      ansible.windows.win_stat:
        path: "{{ myfile }}"
        checksum_algorithm: sha256
      register: file_data
- name: Show the checksum
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "SHA256: {{ file_data.stat.checksum }}"
      when: file_data.stat.exists

Conclusion

Now you know how to check if a file exists on Windows-like systems with Ansible.

Related Articles

• conditional execution with Ansible when • managing inventory in Ansible • managing Windows hosts with Ansible