How to Delete Only Files Inside a Directory - Ansible module find

How to automate the search and delete of the files and directories inside a directory keeping the main folder with Ansible modules find and file.

May 10, 2022

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#ansible #find #file #linux #file #directory #delete

How to Delete Only Files Inside a Directory 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 How to Delete Only Files Inside a Directory

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

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, defaults to file but you could filter for directory, link or any filesystem object type.

demo

How to delete Ooly files inside a directory with Ansible Playbook. I’m going to delete only the files and directories under the example folder of my login user (devops).

code

---
- name: delete file(s) in dir demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    mypath: "/home/devops/example"
  tasks:
    - name: collect files
      ansible.builtin.find:
        paths: "{{ mypath }}"
        hidden: true
        recurse: true
        file_type: any
      register: collected_files
    - name: remove collected files
      ansible.builtin.file:
        path: "{{ item.path }}"
        state: absent
      with_items: "{{ collected_files }}"

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory delete\ file\ or\ directory/file_onlyfiles.yml
PLAY [delete file(s) in dir demo] *****************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [collect files] ******************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [remove collected files and directories] *****************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com] => (item={'path': '/home/devops/example/file1.txt', 'mode': '0644', 'isdir': False, 'ischr': False, 'isblk': False, 'isreg': True, 'isfifo': False, 'islnk': False, 'issock': False, 'uid': 1001, 'gid': 10, 'size': 0, 'inode': 484310, 'dev': 64768, 'nlink': 1, 'atime': 1652197335.6893907, 'mtime': 1652197335.6893907, 'ctime': 1652197335.6893907, 'gr_name': 'wheel', 'pw_name': 'devops', 'wusr': True, 'rusr': True, 'xusr': False, 'wgrp': False, 'rgrp': True, 'xgrp': False, 'woth': False, 'roth': True, 'xoth': False, 'isuid': False, 'isgid': False})
changed: [demo.example.com] => (item={'path': '/home/devops/example/file2.txt', 'mode': '0644', 'isdir': False, 'ischr': False, 'isblk': False, 'isreg': True, 'isfifo': False, 'islnk': False, 'issock': False, 'uid': 1001, 'gid': 10, 'size': 0, 'inode': 484311, 'dev': 64768, 'nlink': 1, 'atime': 1652197337.6393802, 'mtime': 1652197337.6393802, 'ctime': 1652197337.6393802, 'gr_name': 'wheel', 'pw_name': 'devops', 'wusr': True, 'rusr': True, 'xusr': False, 'wgrp': False, 'rgrp': True, 'xgrp': False, 'woth': False, 'roth': True, 'xoth': False, 'isuid': False, 'isgid': False})
changed: [demo.example.com] => (item={'path': '/home/devops/example/deleteme', 'mode': '0755', 'isdir': True, 'ischr': False, 'isblk': False, 'isreg': False, 'isfifo': False, 'islnk': False, 'issock': False, 'uid': 1001, 'gid': 10, 'size': 23, 'inode': 201823954, 'dev': 64768, 'nlink': 2, 'atime': 1652197359.8632617, 'mtime': 1652197356.4072802, 'ctime': 1652197356.4072802, 'gr_name': 'wheel', 'pw_name': 'devops', 'wusr': True, 'rusr': True, 'xusr': True, 'wgrp': False, 'rgrp': True, 'xgrp': True, 'woth': False, 'roth': True, 'xoth': True, 'isuid': False, 'isgid': False})
ok: [demo.example.com] => (item={'path': '/home/devops/example/deleteme/file3.txt', 'mode': '0644', 'isdir': False, 'ischr': False, 'isblk': False, 'isreg': True, 'isfifo': False, 'islnk': False, 'issock': False, 'uid': 1001, 'gid': 10, 'size': 0, 'inode': 201823955, 'dev': 64768, 'nlink': 1, 'atime': 1652197356.4072802, 'mtime': 1652197356.4072802, 'ctime': 1652197356.4072802, 'gr_name': 'wheel', 'pw_name': 'devops', 'wusr': True, 'rusr': True, 'xusr': False, 'wgrp': False, 'rgrp': True, 'xgrp': False, 'woth': False, 'roth': True, 'xoth': False, 'isuid': False, 'isgid': False})
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=3    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
idempotency
$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory delete\ file\ or\ directory/file_onlyfiles.yml
PLAY [delete file(s) in dir demo] *****************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [collect files] ******************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [remove collected files and directories] *****************************************************
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=1    rescued=0    ignored=0

before execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ tree example/
example/
|-- deleteme
|   `-- file3.txt
|-- file1.txt
`-- file2.txt
1 directory, 3 files

after execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ tree example/
example/
0 directories, 0 files

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know how to delete only files inside a directory with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.