Ansible win_file Module: Create & Manage Files on Windows (Guide) — Video Tutorial

How to create an empty file in 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. Ansible creates an empty file - `ansible.windows.win_file` - Creates, touches, or removes files or directories Today we're talking about the Ansible module `win_file`. The full name is `ansible.windows.win_file`, which means that is part of the collection of modules to interact with windows machines. It's a module pretty stable and out for years. It creates, touches, or removes files or directories. For Linux targets, use [the ansible.builtin.file module](/articles/create-an-empty-file-ansible-module-file)) instead. Parameters - path path - file path - state string - file/absent/directory/touch This module has some parameters to perform any tasks. The only required is "path", where you specify the filesystem path of the file you're going to edit. The state defines the type of object we are modifying, the default is "file" but for our use case, we need the "touch" option. Links - [ansible.windows.win_file](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_file_module.html) Playbook Create an empty file in Windows-like systems with Ansible playbook code ```yaml --- - name: win_file module demo hosts: all become: false gather_facts: false vars: myfile: 'C:\Users\vagrant\Desktop\example.txt' tasks: - name: Creating an empty file ansible.windows.win_file: path: "{{ myfile }}" state: touch ``` execution ```bash ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory create\ file/file-windows.yml PLAY [win_file module demo] *********************************************************************** TASK [Creating an empty file] ********************************************************************* changed: [WindowsServer] PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************** WindowsServer : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 ansible-pilot $ ``` idempotency not valid ```bash ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory create\ file/file-windows.yml PLAY [win_file module demo] *********************************************************************** TASK [Creating an empty file] ********************************************************************* changed: [WindowsServer] PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************** WindowsServer : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 ansible-pilot $ ``` before execution  after execution  [code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot) Conclus