# Doing a make from a ansible playbook **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 10, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784 "2012-08-10T19:08:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![James8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@James8](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James8)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/1 "2012-08-10T19:08:16Z")
Hi, Was just reading the list, and I have been able to complete untar with:   - name: Extract hdparm     action: command tar xzf /home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37.tar.gz -C /home/jmarcus/     tags:        - hdparm What is the appropriate way to achieve this:   - name: Compile hdparm     action: command cd ~jmarcus/hdparm-9.37 ; make     tags:        - hdparm Thanks, James ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/2 "2012-08-10T19:28:59Z")
use the shell module or add a “chdir=path” to the end of the command line ---
**Author:** ![James8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@James8](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James8)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/3 "2012-08-13T17:48:56Z")
Hi, Still haven't gotten this to work:   - name: Compile hdparm     action: shell make chdir=cd /home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37/     tags:        - hdparm and   - name: Compile hdparm     action: shell chdir=cd /home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37/ make     tags:        - hdparm I have also tried: action: command make chdir=cd /home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37/ with and without the trailing / bash-3.2$ ansible --version ansible 0.6 bash-3.2$ ansible-playbook --version ansible-playbook 0.6 bash-3.2$ Thanks, James ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/4 "2012-08-14T00:58:08Z")
chdir= works fine for me in 0.7, though you didn't indicate how it failed Easy test: ansible all -m command -a "touch foo chdir=/tmp" I would still recommend not building on your production systems -- the git module or deploying an RPM/apt package are easy ways to go. ---
**Author:** ![James8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@James8](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James8)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/5 "2012-08-14T15:41:59Z")
Hi, Your example works. This was the error I was getting: TASK: [Compile hdparm] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* failed: [cl009.test.net] =\> {"failed": true, "module": "shell", "msg": "cannot change to directory 'cd': path does not exist"} I have updated the config to this and it works:   - name: Extract hdparm     action: command tar xzf /home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37.tar.gz -C /home/jmarcus/     tags:        - hdparm   - name: Compile hdparm     action: command make chdir=/home/jmarcus/hdparm-9.37/     tags:        - hdparm Thanks, James ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/6 "2012-08-14T16:14:12Z")
Right, we can’t cd to a directory if it is not there yet 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Thames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Will\_Thames](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Will_Thames)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/doing-a-make-from-a-ansible-playbook/11784/7 "2012-08-15T02:42:26Z")
That’s not actually the problem though. James is using the command in the form command chdir=cd /directory tar … Note the extraneous cd that is absoutely not required - the directory not found message relates to the directory ‘cd’ - it should be command chdir=/directory tar … Will