Ansible Delete Files in Directory: find & file Modules (Examples) — Video Tutorial

How to Delete Only Files Inside a Directory 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 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. Links - [ansible.builtin.find](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/find_module.html) - [ansible.builtin.file](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/file_module.html) ## Playbook 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 ```yaml --- - name: delete file(s) in dir Playbook 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 ```bash $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory delete\ file\ or\ directory/file_onlyfiles.yml PLAY [delete file(s) in dir Playbook] ***************************************************************** 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': 6476