Deleting files based on a name pattern

Archives Ansible Project
1

I’m trying to clear a directory with certain file names based on a pattern and it doesn’t seem to work:

  • name: Remove any extant jars
    file: name=“{{app_home}}/server/deploy/{{item}}” state=absent
    with_items:
  • “token.jar”
  • “opm.jar”
  • “pf-sm.jar”

This isn’t working; the existing jars stay there even though Ansible reports “CHANGED” on all three.

I need this since these jars have their versions in their names and I need to make sure that they are deleted prior to pushing the updated files.

Thanks,

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2

Nope, the file module doesn’t accept shell wildcards, it needs real filenames.

I’d shell out to rm in this case, though you won’t be able to use the “deletes=” keyword to the shell module to override the “changed value” so it will register as a change every time.

3

Thanks. I kind of came to that same conclusion about shelling it out, but hoping I was missing something.

James

4

You could shell out to collect the filenames if you still want to use the Ansible objects to do the deletions (this code assumes your shell is bash):

  • shell: ls {{app_home}}/server/deploy/{token,opm,pf-sm}.jar
    register: jars_to_cleanup
    ignore_errors: yes

  • file: name={{item}} state=absent
    with_items: jars_to_cleanup.stdout_lines

Not sure if that’s better or worse than just shelling out for the rm statement, but it’s an option. Perhaps Ansible needs a glob-expansion function/operator to handle such a case?