# Find register directory seems to not registered **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 12, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013 "2016-11-12T01:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Felix\_Gao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@Felix\_Gao](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Felix_Gao)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013/1 "2016-11-12T01:25:03Z")
- hosts: test remote\_user: ec2-user sudo: yes tasks: #using the shell command because we need \* expansion, otherwise if we know the exact directory we can use command module instead - name: list log directory to find main directory name find: paths: [“/var/log/”] patterns: “file-main\*” file\_type: directory register: out\_directories - debug: var=“{{ item }}” with\_items: “{{ out\_directories }}” The output is ansible-playbook -vv -i hosts -u ec2-user directory\_cleanup.yml Using /Users/ggao/Projects/ansible-playbooks/test/ansible.cfg as config file [DEPRECATION WARNING]: Instead of sudo/sudo\_user, use become/become\_user and make sure become\_method is ‘sudo’ (default). This feature will be removed in a future release. Deprecation warnings can be disabled by setting deprecation\_warnings=False in ansible.cfg. PLAYBOOK: directory\_cleanup.yml \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 1 plays in directory\_cleanup.yml PLAY [test] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK [setup] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [10.81.108.140] TASK [list log directory to find wasabi main directory name] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /Users/ggao/Projects/ansible-playbooks/test/directory\_cleanup.yml:8 ok: [10.81.108.140] =\> {“changed”: false, “examined”: 30, “files”: [{“atime”: 1478891483.1474261, “ctime”: 1478891479.107535, “dev”: 51713, “gid”: 50002, “inode”: 264540, “isblk”: false, “ischr”: false, “isdir”: true, “isfifo”: false, “isgid”: false, “islnk”: false, “isreg”: false, “issock”: false, “isuid”: false, “mode”: “0755”, “mtime”: 1478891479.107535, “nlink”: 2, “path”: “/var/log/file-main-20161108022522”, “rgrp”: true, “roth”: true, “rusr”: true, “size”: 4096, “uid”: 50002, “wgrp”: false, “woth”: false, “wusr”: true, “xgrp”: true, “xoth”: true, “xusr”: true}], “matched”: 1, “msg”: “”} TASK [debug] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /Users/ggao/Projects/ansible-playbooks/test/directory\_cleanup.yml:16 ok: [10.81.108.140] =\> (item=files) =\> { “files”: “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!”, “item”: “files” } ok: [10.81.108.140] =\> (item=msg) =\> { “item”: “msg”, “msg”: “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!” } changed: [10.81.108.140] =\> (item=changed) =\> { “changed”: “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!”, “item”: “changed” } ok: [10.81.108.140] =\> (item=examined) =\> { “examined”: “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!”, “item”: “examined” } ok: [10.81.108.140] =\> (item=matched) =\> { “item”: “matched”, “matched”: “VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!” } PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 10.81.108.140 : ok=3 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 using python 2.7 on ansible-playbook 2.2.0.0 Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013/2 "2016-11-12T21:09:01Z")
> - hosts: test >   remote\_user: ec2-user >   sudo: yes >   tasks: >       #using the shell command because we need \* expansion, otherwise if we > know the exact directory we can use command module instead >       - name: list log directory to find main directory name >         find: >             paths: ["/var/log/"] >             patterns: "file-main\*" >             file\_type: directory >         register: out\_directories When you use register with find the result is a list in files. You can check the content of out\_directories with - debug: var=out\_directories >       - debug: var="{{ item }}" Var takes the variable and not the content of the variable, correct use is var=item. >         with\_items: "{{ out\_directories }}" Register with find, the result is list of dictionaries in out\_directories.files, so you'll need to write it like this - debug: var=item.path    with\_items: "{{ out\_directories.files }}" ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_Gao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@Felix\_Gao](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Felix_Gao)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013/3 "2016-11-14T23:15:26Z")
Kai, thanks for your explanation and I have made some progress but I am further stopped by the next stage. My problem is that I have a dynamic directory that generate log file in certain directories with the following format /var/log/app-YYYYMMDD-RANDOM\_HASH/log\_file\_name-YYYYMMDDMMSS-[audit,console,access,].log and I am trying to find all the logs in that directory that are more than 1GB then trim it. I have these in my tasks tasks: #using the shell command because we need \* expansion, otherwise if we know the exact directory we can use command module instead - name: list log directory to find wasabi main directory name find: paths: [“/var/log/”] patterns: “wasabi-intuit-main\*” file\_type: directory register: out\_directories ignore\_errors: True - name: list log files for wasabi intuit main find: paths: “{{item.path}}” patterns: “wasabi-intuit-main\*.log” file\_type: file register: out\_files with\_items: “{{ out\_directories.files }}” ignore\_errors: True but it seems the returned out\_files variable is a dict. the key is another dict of the previous job and the value is a dict from find return values with added properties like “changed”,“examined”, and “msg”. now I am confused on how to iterate that object so I can filter the result. I have tried “{{ out\_files.values().files }}” and “{{ out\_files.results.files }}” which does not seems to work ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013/4 "2016-11-15T17:06:27Z")
> thanks for your explanation and I have made some progress but I am further > stopped by the next stage. > My problem is that I have a dynamic directory that generate log file in > certain directories with the following format > /var/log/app-YYYYMMDD-RANDOM\_HASH/log\_file\_name-YYYYMMDDMMSS-[audit,console,access,].log > and I am trying to find all the logs in that directory that are more than > 1GB then trim it. Can't you just do this in one find? - name: Find file \>=1GB    find:      path: /var/log      patterns: "wasabi-intuit-main\*.log"      file\_type: file      size: 1g    register: files\_too\_large > I have these in my tasks > >   tasks: >       #using the shell command because we need \* expansion, otherwise if we > know the exact directory we can use command module instead >       - name: list log directory to find wasabi main directory name >         find: >             paths: ["/var/log/"] >             patterns: "wasabi-intuit-main\*" >             file\_type: directory >         register: out\_directories >         ignore\_errors: True > >       - name: list log files for wasabi intuit main >         find: >             paths: "{{item.path}}" >             patterns: "wasabi-intuit-main\*.log" >             file\_type: file >         register: out\_files >         with\_items: "{{ out\_directories.files }}" >         ignore\_errors: True > > but it seems the returned out\_files variable is a dict. the key is another > dict of the previous job and the value is a dict from find return values > with added properties like "changed","examined", and "msg". now I am > confused on how to iterate that object so I can filter the result. > > I have tried "{{ out\_files.values().files }}" and "{{ > out\_files.results.files }}" which does not seems to work This is going to be somewhat complicated, I do recommend looking at doing it with less loops. out\_file.results.0.files will contain all files in the fist directory from out\_directories out\_file.results.1.files will contain all files in the second directory from out\_directories ... If you still want to iterate on out\_files you will have to look av with\_subelements. Probably someting like this    - debug: var=item.1.path      with\_subelements:        - "{{ out\_file.results }}"        - files ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_Gao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@Felix\_Gao](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Felix_Gao)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/find-register-directory-seems-to-not-registered/23013/5 "2016-11-16T01:08:39Z")
Thanks for the reply, I ended using - name: Find file \>=1GB find: path: /var/log patterns: “wasabi-intuit-main\*.log” file\_type: file size: 1g recursive: true register: files\_too\_large because the file is in another level deep than /var/log and the nested loops seems to be too complicated. I would really love is find’s path can also take a regex instead of just the pattern on the file matching.