# Setting an intial cron job and leaving it alone on later plays **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [May 17, 2020, 9:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/setting-an-intial-cron-job-and-leaving-it-alone-on-later-plays/32951 "2020-05-17T09:37:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![oloryn](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/oloryn/32/7904_2.png) [@oloryn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/oloryn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 9:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/setting-an-intial-cron-job-and-leaving-it-alone-on-later-plays/32951/1 "2020-05-17T09:37:10Z")
I've got a playbook for preparing new Drupal websites. It doesn't itself go through the full installation (which is interactive), but preps what is needed to complete the installation - installing drupal code, setting up Apache2, creating database user and the database itself, etc. One of the things I'm doing is prepping a cron job that can be completed and enabled after the manual part of the configuration is done. I'm doing this: - name: Create cron job   cron:     name: Drupal cron job     disabled: true     minute: "\*/15"     job: curl --silent --compressed url     user: "{{ username }}" The idea is that the 'url' in the job will be manually replaced by the required url (obtainable from the Drupal Status Report screen, and containing many, many random characters), and enabled. Of course, if I run this playbook again, the job is going to be changed back to 'curl --silent --compressed url', and of course, I don't want that, but I do want to be able to re-run this playbook against a site, to apply appropriate changes. The cron module, unlike some other Ansible modules, doesn't seem to have a way to say "Don't replace this cron job if it is already in the crontab, even if it's changed" (as opposed to, say, template, which has a 'force: no' which will keep you from overwriting an already existing file). Having the name parameter will keep it from adding multiple copies of a cron job, but it doesn't prevent a modified version from being overwritten. Am I missing something? Is there a not-too-hacky way to do what I want to do here? Ben ---
**Author:** ![vbotka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/vbotka/32/359_2.png) [@vbotka](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vbotka)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/setting-an-intial-cron-job-and-leaving-it-alone-on-later-plays/32951/2 "2020-05-17T11:49:46Z")
Get the list of jobs already present     - name: Get list of cron jobs       cron:         user: "{{ username }}"         name: NOT\_EXISTENT         state: absent       register: result     - name: Display list of cron jobs       debug:         var: result.jobs Then run the task if the job isn't present     - name: Create cron job       cron:         name: Drupal cron job         disabled: true         minute: "\*/15"         job: curl --silent --compressed url         user: "{{ username }}"       when: "'Drupal cron job' not in result.jobs" HTH,   -vlado ---
**Author:** ![oloryn](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/oloryn/32/7904_2.png) [@oloryn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/oloryn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/setting-an-intial-cron-job-and-leaving-it-alone-on-later-plays/32951/3 "2020-05-17T23:00:41Z")
> > "Don't replace this cron job if it is already in the crontab, even if it's > > changed" > > Get the list of jobs already present > >     - name: Get list of cron jobs \ > Then run the task if the job isn't present > >     - name: Create cron job \ Excellent! And I note that this isn't even hinted at in the cron module documentation. I'll file this under "It may be worthwhile to experiment and register the results of various modules to see when they produce when their output is registered". Also "Perhaps module documentation should document what is produced when you register their output". Ben