# Change current directory before tasks are run **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 12, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200 "2014-09-12T16:45:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jesse\_DeFer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jesse\_DeFer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jesse_DeFer)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/1 "2014-09-12T16:45:19Z")
I am trying to create a playbook to unmount an AFS mounted home directory, but I can’t unmount it because the user running ansible has open files because of ansible. I can’t do this with user with a local home, or ssh configs or anything like that. I need to do it with a regular ansible play and regular user, so no funky ssh configs or other changes to my hosts. Here is my play: - name: check if files are open in /afs raw: “cd / && /usr/sbin/lsof /afs” register: command\_result failed\_when: “command\_result.rc != 1” If I run it with ansible, it will succeed, but ansible-playbook will show two processes spawned by the ansible run (sh and sudo). Is there a way to change the current directory before tasks are run? Thanks, Jesse ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Peters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Michael\_Peters](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Peters)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/2 "2014-09-12T20:01:35Z")
Does the chdir argument to raw work?   raw: "/usr/sbin/lsof /afs" chdir="/" ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/3 "2014-09-12T20:07:24Z")
Another thought might be to use the “at” module to defer execution of this particular command, sleep a bit to let it run, and then proceed? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/4 "2014-09-12T20:07:47Z")
Or configure ansible.cfg to use a different temp dir path? ---
**Author:** ![Jesse\_DeFer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jesse\_DeFer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jesse_DeFer)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/5 "2014-09-12T20:39:59Z")
raw doesn’t seem to have a chdir option or it doesn’t have the effect I need, command does but it still shows open files. I already have remote\_tmp set to a different directory. I’m sure I could do something with at, but that’s not the cleanest way to do it. I had thought to set “sudo\_exe = cd / && sudo” but that caused errors about executing sudo. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/6 "2014-09-12T20:46:34Z")
If remote temp is outside of your home why would it still prevent things from unmounting? ---
**Author:** ![Jesse\_DeFer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jesse\_DeFer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jesse_DeFer)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/change-current-directory-before-tasks-are-run/16200/7 "2014-09-12T20:57:10Z")
The CWD of the shell and sudo are still the home directory. The chdir needs to happen before sudo is called.