# unarchive is not skipping if the folder already exists **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 27, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123 "2018-11-27T08:52:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123/1 "2018-11-27T08:52:01Z")
Hi Experts, I have below play book for extracting a .zip file from Ansible controller machine to the target folders. But i noticed that play is not working as expected if the target folder and the unzipped files are already present in the target servers. Could you please guide me here ? ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123/2 "2018-11-27T11:28:01Z")
> Hi Experts, > > I have below play book for extracting a .zip file from Ansible controller machine to the target folders. But i noticed that play is not working as expected if the target folder and the unzipped files are already present in the target servers. Could you please guide me here ? Hi Some questions: 1. The playbook is restricted to localhost, and 'extracting a .zip file from Ansible controller machine to the target folders' also indicates you want to extract a ZIP file on the controller machine. But then your talk about 'files are already present in the target servers' - which indicates that you DO want to extract the archive on a remote host. What do you actually mean? 2. You mention that the play 'is not working as expected'. The question then is: what \_did\_ you expect (and what exactly isn't going as you expected)? 3. You now use a fragile combination of two modules (stat + command) to achieve what can also be done with only one module: file. 4. The 'creates' parameter of the unarchive module should be an absolute path, but you specify it as 'no'. 5. Cosmetically: you define 'source\_dir' but then the value is the path of a (ZIP) file. Strictly speaking there is nothing wrong, but it does make things confusing. 6. If this is part of a role (which '/etc/ansible/roles/IBM2/files/mypack.zip' indicates), you could leave out the full path as this will be implicit (i.e. just 'files/mypack.zip') The good news is that, depending on what you really want (still unclear at this point), it could be as simple as use a single unarchive task. At the risk of guessing: - name: Extract file   hosts: targethosts   vars:     zipfile: files/mypack.zip     destdir: /opt/mypack   tasks:     - name: extract zip file       unarchive:         src: "{{ zipfile }}"         dest: "{{ destdir }}" Dick ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123/3 "2018-11-27T12:57:23Z")
Hello Dick, Thanks for all your suggestions. I am very sorry for the mistake in my playbook which i copied here. Actually as i stated i would need to extract the mypack.zip file which is in the controller machine to all my application servers( here by mistake i defined as localhost, where as a list of servers are there). my aim is that extract the .zip file in the controller to the specific folder in application servers (because i have another script with this path specified for calling the package). i was trying for 2 conditions 1. check the target servers directory present or not (eg: /opt/mypack). if it present skip else create directory. 2. check the above directory already have the extracted file or not. if no extract, if yes skip extract. I tried with below playbook where i want to extract 2 .zip packages to all target servers specific location (/opt/mypack and /opt/mypack2) ---
**Author:** ![Bharath\_Kumar2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Bharath\_Kumar2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bharath_Kumar2)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123/4 "2018-11-28T03:53:38Z")
Try the below (check for indentation) ` ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unarchive-is-not-skipping-if-the-folder-already-exists/29123/5 "2018-11-28T08:17:26Z")
Hello Bharath, Thanks for your suggestion and i tried with below play and it didnt get succeed. play