Canonical way to correct a broken symlink

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1

Hi,

I’m just starting out with Ansible, and I probably haven’t yet read all the docs I should, but I’m trying, so bear with me.

I have a simple play:

  • name: test
    file:
    path: “/path/to/file”
    owner: username
    group: usergroup
    mode: 0644
    follow: yes

My problem is that while this is sometimes a file and sometimes a link to another file, it is also sometimes a broken symlink (literally to “None” in my case, how that happens is another problem), and my play stops short (in check mode!) saying that I need to specify “force” to create the destination.

I do not want to create the destination (especially since it’s “None”); if the symlink is broken I would like to replace it with an empty file (or maybe a template), unless I’m in check mode when I should simply note that a correction should be made.

Googling ansible and broken symlink didn’t help me, so I started out with the stat module, and conditionals on the values and success of stat, asking myself if stat.originalfile is the destination of the link, and if I should use that or do two stats on the file, one with follow and one without, and when I was on my fourth task I decided to ask you all whether there’s a simpler way :slight_smile:

HAND

2

Basically I guess you would have to check first, what state you have,
e.g. a file, a link or a broken link. I guess using the stat module
should do most of this.

https://docs.ansible.com/stat_module.html

Register the variable of this task and depending on its result start
your other tasks.

https://docs.ansible.com/playbooks_variables.html

I'm in a hurry, so please excuse my brevity.

Johannes