# Changing of ownership is not working

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/changing-of-ownership-is-not-working/4753>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** playbook\
**Created:** [April 5, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/changing-of-ownership-is-not-working/4753 "2024-04-05T14:29:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vanshita\_R\_Baweja](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/vanshita_r_baweja/32/2793_2.png) [@Vanshita\_R\_Baweja](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vanshita_R_Baweja)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/changing-of-ownership-is-not-working/4753/1 "2024-04-05T14:29:10Z")

</div>

Here, in this code, I’m trying to change the ownership from root:root to user:user. It is failing to do so!  
Due to this ownership issue, it is giving error at next step.

Logs of error:

```auto
TASK [Change ownership of output_dir directory to "user"] **********************************************************************************************
changed: [ip]

TASK [Download Output File Locally] ************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [ip]: FAILED! => {"msg": "Unable to create local directories(/tmp/log/dir1/dir2): [Errno 13] Permission denied: b'/tmp/log/dir1/dir2'"}

```

This code is not even giving any error.

- my code!

```-
  hosts: "{{ profile }}"
  remote_user: "{{ user }}"
  vars:
    code_name: xenial
    user: "{{ user }}"
    output_dir: "{{ output_dir }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Create Template OS Version file
      shell: echo "" > /home/{{ user }}/os-version.txt
    - name: Run the shell command to get raw OS data
      shell: |
        cat /etc/*release > os-version.txt
	- name: Change ownership of output_dir directory to "user"
      file:
        path: "{{ output_dir }}"
        owner: "{{ new_owner }}"
        state: directory
      become: yes
    - name: Download Output File Locally
      fetch:
        src: /home/{{ user }}/os-version.txt
        dest: "{{ output_dir }}os-version.txt"
        flat: yes
      become: yes
      become_user: root
    - name: Clean up footprints
      shell: |
        rm /home/{{ user }}/os-version.txt

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 1:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/changing-of-ownership-is-not-working/4753/2 "2024-04-06T13:13:50Z")

</div>

You have a few problems. I was able to get your playbook to run - and fail - depending on what extra variables I put on the command line. For the record, I used this:

```sh
$ ansible-playbook copyfetch.yml -vv -e '{"profile":"cloister","user":"utoddl","output_dir":"/tmp/log/dir1/dir2","new_owner":"utoddl"}' -K -i cloister,

```

Starting at the top: Setting `hosts:` to a variable is a bit of an anti-pattern. But if you’re going to do it, you should at least include a default, even if it’s

```yaml
  hosts: "{{ profile | default('none') }}"

```

so that you can run `ansible-lint` on your playbook. (Otherwise `ansible-lint` stops at that point. Or at least it did at the version I’m running.)

Why are you setting the variables `user` and `output_dir` to their own values? If they don’t already have those values, those initializations won’t work. Or maybe that’s the point: to ensure they are passed in from outside? If so, I recommend you add an [ansible.builtin.assert](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/assert_module.html#ansible-builtin-assert-module-asserts-given-expressions-are-true) step with appropriate messages and assertions.

The whitespace before “`- name: Change ownership of output_dir directory to "user"`” is a tab, not spaces. (Speaking of whitespace, a blank line between tasks would be welcome by some of us.)

Your “`Change ownership of output_dir directory to "user"`” task is creating a possibly nested directory on the _remote_, not on the _Ansible control node_. You probably want a “`delegate_to: localhost`” on that task. Also, the task name claims to change the owner to `"user"`, when in fact it changes it to `{{ new_owner }}`.

I was not able to reproduce the exact error you showed, but the expression

```yaml
        dest: "{{ output_dir }}os-version.txt"

```

depends on the value of `{{ output_dir }}` ending with a “`/`”. You really should spell that

```yaml
        dest: "{{ output_dir }}/os-version.txt"

```

so the `dest:` will work regardless of whether `{{ output_dir }}` ends with a slash.

I suspect your error has to do with something already existing at some level along the path `/tmp/log/dir1/dir2/os-version.txt`, particularly since the prior step which was supposed to prepare that path did so on the wrong host. It could also be that the version of `ansible.builtin.fetch` you are running cannot create the necessary parent directories. (Mine does, so the prior step’s prep on the wrong host was irrelevant in my tests.)

I hope something in here helps. Good luck.