Ansible Check if File Exists: stat Module with when Conditional (Guide) — Video Tutorial

How to check if a file exists in 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 Ansible check file exists Today we're talking about the Ansible module `stat`. The full name is `ansible.builtin.stat`, which means that is part of the collection of modules "builtin" with ansible and shipped with it. It's a module pretty stable and out for years. It works in a different variety of operating systems. It retrieves a file entry or a file system status. For Windows target use the [`ansible.windows.win_stat`](/articles/check-if-a-file-exists-on-windows-like-systems-ansible-module-win-stat) module instead. 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. The module returns a complex object, the property that is interesting for us is "exists". This attribute is "true" if the object exists. ## Playbook Let's jump in a real-life playbook to check if a file exists with Ansible. code - file_exist.yml ```yaml --- - name: check if a file exist hosts: all become: false vars: myfile: /home/devops/test.txt tasks: - name: check if a file exists ansible.builtin.stat: path: "{{ myfile }}" register: file_data - name: report file exists ansible.builtin.debug: msg: "The file {{ myfile }} exist" when: file_data.stat.exists - name: report file not exists ansible.builtin.debug: msg: "The file {{ myfile }} doesn't exist" when: not file_data.stat.exists ``` [code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot/tree/master/check%20file%20exists) Conclusion Now you know how to check if a file exists with Ansible. Advanced File Checks Check file and take action ```yaml - name: Check if config exists ansible.builtin.stat: path: /etc/myapp/config.yml register: config_file - name: Copy default config if missing ansible.builtin.copy: src: files/default-config.yml dest: /etc/myapp/config.yml mode: '0644' when: not config_file.stat.exists - name: Read existing config ansible.builtin.slurp: src: /etc/myapp/config.yml register: config_content when: config_file.stat.exists ``` Verify file checksum (integrity check) ```yaml - name: Get file checksum ansible.builtin.stat: path: /opt/myapp/binary checksum_algorithm: sha256 register: binary_info - name: Fail if binary is corrupted ansible.builtin.fail: msg: "Binary checksum mismatch! Expected {{ expected_checksum }}" when: - binary_info.stat.exists - binary_info.stat.checksum != expected_checksum ``` Check file age ```yaml - name: Get file info ansible.builtin.stat: path: /var/log/myapp/app.log register: log_file - name: Rotate if file is larger than 100MB ansible.builtin.command: logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/myapp when: - log