Watch: How to Check If a Directory Exists in Ansible

Learn how to check if a directory exists on your systems using Ansible's ansible.builtin.stat module. Follow along with a practical Playbook example to verify directory presence and integrate this functionality into your automation workflows.

How to check if a directory 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 directory 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-directory-exists-on-windows-like-systems-ansible-module-winstat) module instead.

Main parameters and return values

path _string_

The only mandatory parameter is “path” which is the filesystem full path of the object to check.

* stat _complex_

The module returns a complex object, the property that is interesting for us is “isdir”. This attribute is “true” if the object is a directory.

Demo

Let’s jump in a real-life playbook to check if a directory exists with Ansible.

code

directory_check_exists.yml

``yaml


---
name: check if the directory exists
  hosts: all
  become: false
  vars:
    directory: "/tmp"
  tasks:
    - name: Check if the directory exists
      ansible.builtin.stat:
        path: "{{ directory }}"
      register: dir_to_check

    - name: Directory found
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "Directory {{ directory }} present"
      when: dir_to_check.stat.isdir is defined and dir_to_check.stat.isdir

[code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot/tree/master/check%20directory%20exists)

Conclusion

Now you know better the Ansible module stat and you could use it successfully in your playbook.