Find All Files with Extension - Ansible module find

How to automate the finding of all files with “.cnf” extension under the “example” directory of “devops” user using Ansible Playbook and find module.

July 7, 2022

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#ansible #search #filesystem #linux #rhel #centos #fedora #ubuntu #debian #suse #find #extension

How to Find All Files with a specific Extension with Ansible?

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

Ansible Find All Files with Extension

ansible.builtin.find
Return a list of files based on specific criteria

Today we’re talking about the Ansible module find. The full name is ansible.builtin.find, which means that is part of the collection included in the ansible-core builtin collection. This module returns a list of files based on specific criteria using the find popular Unix command.

Parameters

paths string - List of paths of directories to search
hidden boolean - no/yes
recurse boolean - recursively descend into the directory looking for files
file_type string - file/directory/any/link
patterns list - search (shell or regex) pattern(s)
use_regex boolean - no/yes - file globs (shell) / python regexes

The most important parameters of the find module for this use case. The mandatory parameter paths specify the list of paths of directories to search. You could include hidden files with the hidden parameter. As well as recurse in any directory under the main path with the recurse parameter. Another useful parameter is file_type, which defaults to file but you could filter for directory, link, or any filesystem object type. Specify what to search under the patterns list. Ansible by default uses file globs (shell) patterns but you could specify also python regexes enabling the use_regex parameter.

demo

How to Find All Files with Extension with Ansible Playbook. I’m going to search only the files and directories under the example folder of my login users (devops) and list all the files with the “.cnf” extension. This code has no dangerous effect on the target machine.

code

---
- name: find demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    mypath: "/home/devops/example"
    mypattern: '*.cnf'
  tasks:
    - name: search files
      ansible.builtin.find:
        paths: "{{ mypath }}"
        hidden: true
        recurse: true
        file_type: any
        patterns: "{{ mypattern }}"
      register: found_files

    - name: print files
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        var: found_files

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory file_management/file_find.yml
PLAY [find demo] **********************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [search files] *******************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [print files] ********************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com] => {
    "found_files": {
        "changed": false,
        "examined": 3,
        "failed": false,
        "files": [
            {
                "atime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "ctime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "dev": 64768,
                "gid": 10,
                "gr_name": "wheel",
                "inode": 134965918,
                "isblk": false,
                "ischr": false,
                "isdir": false,
                "isfifo": false,
                "isgid": false,
                "islnk": false,
                "isreg": true,
                "issock": false,
                "isuid": false,
                "mode": "0644",
                "mtime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "nlink": 1,
                "path": "/home/devops/example/file1.cnf",
                "pw_name": "devops",
                "rgrp": true,
                "roth": true,
                "rusr": true,
                "size": 0,
                "uid": 1001,
                "wgrp": false,
                "woth": false,
                "wusr": true,
                "xgrp": false,
                "xoth": false,
                "xusr": false
            },
            {
                "atime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "ctime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "dev": 64768,
                "gid": 10,
                "gr_name": "wheel",
                "inode": 134965931,
                "isblk": false,
                "ischr": false,
                "isdir": false,
                "isfifo": false,
                "isgid": false,
                "islnk": false,
                "isreg": true,
                "issock": false,
                "isuid": false,
                "mode": "0644",
                "mtime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "nlink": 1,
                "path": "/home/devops/example/file2.cnf",
                "pw_name": "devops",
                "rgrp": true,
                "roth": true,
                "rusr": true,
                "size": 0,
                "uid": 1001,
                "wgrp": false,
                "woth": false,
                "wusr": true,
                "xgrp": false,
                "xoth": false,
                "xusr": false
            }
        ],
        "matched": 2,
        "msg": "All paths examined",
        "skipped_paths": {}
    }
}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

idempotency

$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory file_management/file_find.yml
PLAY [find demo] **********************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [search files] *******************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [print files] ********************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com] => {
    "found_files": {
        "changed": false,
        "examined": 3,
        "failed": false,
        "files": [
            {
                "atime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "ctime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "dev": 64768,
                "gid": 10,
                "gr_name": "wheel",
                "inode": 134965918,
                "isblk": false,
                "ischr": false,
                "isdir": false,
                "isfifo": false,
                "isgid": false,
                "islnk": false,
                "isreg": true,
                "issock": false,
                "isuid": false,
                "mode": "0644",
                "mtime": 1657183703.9653573,
                "nlink": 1,
                "path": "/home/devops/example/file1.cnf",
                "pw_name": "devops",
                "rgrp": true,
                "roth": true,
                "rusr": true,
                "size": 0,
                "uid": 1001,
                "wgrp": false,
                "woth": false,
                "wusr": true,
                "xgrp": false,
                "xoth": false,
                "xusr": false
            },
            {
                "atime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "ctime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "dev": 64768,
                "gid": 10,
                "gr_name": "wheel",
                "inode": 134965931,
                "isblk": false,
                "ischr": false,
                "isdir": false,
                "isfifo": false,
                "isgid": false,
                "islnk": false,
                "isreg": true,
                "issock": false,
                "isuid": false,
                "mode": "0644",
                "mtime": 1657183705.7742639,
                "nlink": 1,
                "path": "/home/devops/example/file2.cnf",
                "pw_name": "devops",
                "rgrp": true,
                "roth": true,
                "rusr": true,
                "size": 0,
                "uid": 1001,
                "wgrp": false,
                "woth": false,
                "wusr": true,
                "xgrp": false,
                "xoth": false,
                "xusr": false
            }
        ],
        "matched": 2,
        "msg": "All paths examined",
        "skipped_paths": {}
    }
}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

before execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[[email protected] ~]$ cd example
[[email protected] example]$ ls
file1.cnf  file2.cnf  file3.txt
[[email protected] example]$ tree
.
|-- file1.cnf
|-- file2.cnf
`-- file3.txt
0 directories, 3 files
[[email protected] example]$

after execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[[email protected] ~]$ cd example
[[email protected] example]$ ls
file1.cnf  file2.cnf  file3.txt
[[email protected] example]$ tree
.
|-- file1.cnf
|-- file2.cnf
`-- file3.txt
0 directories, 3 files
[[email protected] example]$

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know how to Find All Files with Extension with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.