Ansible - Create multiple folders if don't exist

Question

Goal:

• Create multiple directories if they don\'t exist.
• Don\'t change permissions of existing folder

Current playbook:

- name:         


        

Answer 1

Starting from Ansible 2.5, loop should be used to iterate over a list, see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html#standard-loops

As the Ansible file module is idempotent, you do not have to check if the folders already exist.

For example:

- name: create backup directories
  file:
    path: "{{ item }}"
    state: directory
    owner: backup
    group: backup
    mode: 0775
  loop:
    - /backupdisk/certificates
    - /backupdisk/mysql
    - /backupdisk/wordpress

Answer 2

Using Ansible modules, you don't need to check if something exist or not, you just describe the desired state, so:

- name: create directory if they don't exist
  file:
    path: "{{ item }}"
    state: directory
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: 0775
  loop:
    - /data/directory
    - /data/another

Answer 3

Ansible - Creating multiple folders without changing permissions of previously existing.

Working fine for me. Hope this works for you as well just try.

---
- name: "Creating multiple by checking folders"
  hosts: your_host_name
  tasks:
  - block:
    - name: "Checking folders"
      stat:
       path: "{{item}}"
      register: folder_stats
      with_items:
      - ["/var/www/f1","/var/www/f2","/var/www/f3","/var/www/f4"]
    - name: "Creating multiple folders without disturbing previous permissions"
      file:
       path: "{{item.item}}"
       state: directory
       mode: 0755
       group: root
       owner: root
      when: item.stat.exists == false
      loop:
      - "{{folder_stats.results}}"
...