AnsibleByExample

Ansible win_file — Create Windows Dir

Beginneransiblefilemoduledirectory
2024-01-012By Luca Berton

Lesson 1 of 15 in Foundations

Ansible Foundations to Production — full curriculum
  1. 1. Introduction to Ansible and Automation
  2. 2. Installing and Configuring Ansible
  3. 3. Running Ad-Hoc Commands
  4. 4. Writing Your First Playbook
  5. 5. Understanding and Using Modules
  6. 6. Variables and Facts
  7. 7. Conditionals and Loops
  8. 8. Handlers and Idempotency
  9. 9. Structuring Projects with Roles
  10. 10. Inventory Management
  11. 11. Using Ansible Vault for Secrets
  12. 12. Debugging and Troubleshooting
  13. 13. Real-World Automation Examples
  14. 14. Final Project: Deploy a Web Server
  15. 15. Bonus - What's Next with Ansible?
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How to create a directory in Windows-like systems with Ansible?

Ansible create a directory

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 instead

Main Parameters

  • path path - file path
  • state string - file/absent/directory/touch

This module has some parameters to perform different 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 "directory" option.

Playbook

How to create an "example" directory/folder in the Desktop of the user on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook.

code

---
- name: win_file module demo
  hosts: all
  vars:
    mydir: 'C:\Users\vagrant\Desktop\example'
  tasks:
    - name: Create a directory
      ansible.windows.win_file:
        path: "{{ mydir }}"
        state: directory

execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory create\ directory/directory_create_windows.yml
PLAY [win_file module demo] ***********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [Create a directory] *************************************************************************
changed: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

idempotency

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory create\ directory/directory_create_windows.yml
PLAY [win_file module demo] ***********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [Create a directory] *************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

before execution

win_file before execution

after execution

win_file after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know how to create a directory in Windows-like systems with Ansible.

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