Ansible find Module: Search Files by Extension, Age, Size & Pattern — Video Tutorial

How to Find All Files with a specific Extension with Ansible? I'm going to show you a live Playbook 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. Links - [`ansible.builtin.find`](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/find_module.html) Playbook 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 ```yaml --- - name: find Playbook 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 ```bash $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory file_management/file_find.yml PLAY [find Playbook] ********************************************************************************** TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************** ok: [demo.example.com] TASK [search files] ******************************************************************************* ok: [demo.example.com] TASK [print files] ******************************************************************************** ok: [demo.example.com] => { "found_files": {