# 'copy' operation on remote host?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [November 19, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830 "2014-11-19T23:03:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_Oliver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/97f17d/32.png) [@John\_Oliver](https://forum.ansible.com/u/John_Oliver)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830/1 "2014-11-19T23:03:51Z")

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Is there a way to use the ‘copy’ module, or an equivalent, to copy files from one spot to another on the target host?

Right now, I’m trying to use ‘command’ or ‘shell’, but I’m running into issues with unusable choking on an asterisk, and I have to use several lines to copy, set ownership, set perms, etc.

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830/2 "2014-11-20T00:17:47Z")

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not currently, but it sounds like a useful feature.

You can start a discussion in ansible-devel mailing list or open a ticket in github ([http://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core](http://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core) for the project to implement the feature.

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**Author:** ![Marc\_Patermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Marc\_Patermann](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Marc_Patermann)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830/3 "2014-11-20T08:23:21Z")

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John Oliver schrieb (20.11.2014 00:03 Uhr):

> Is there a way to use the 'copy' module, or an equivalent, to copy files from one spot to another on the target host?

\>

> Right now, I'm trying to use 'command' or 'shell', but I'm running into issues with unusable choking on an asterisk, and I have to use several lines to copy, set ownership, set perms, etc.

Two shell tasks with "tar -c" and "tar -x"?

Marc

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**Author:** ![Josh\_Smift1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Josh\_Smift1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Josh_Smift1)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copy-operation-on-remote-host/16830/4 "2014-11-20T12:56:21Z")

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> Two shell tasks with "tar -c" and "tar -x"?

If you want to preserve permissions; or you could run a command that pipes  
one to the other; or you could run a command that runs an rsync preserving  
permissions.

If you want to copy a file and \*change\* the permissions, that could be  
harder. Maybe the 'install' command?

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