Ansible find module giving error "does not seem to be a valid directory or it cannot be accessed" absolute path - ansible

Question

Ansible find module isn't working as expected.
So i have three instances
One is test node , second controller node and third is from where i am running my ansible playbook
I am trying to generate ssh-keys on test_nodes and then fetching the public keys from those nodes. This is working fine.
Then I am trying to appending these public keys in the authorized_keys file of a different host(controller_node). For this, I am using the find module to get list of files and then loop over these files in authorized_key module.
I was using :
- name: Set authorized key file taken from file
authorized_key:
user: absrivastava
key: "{{ lookup('file','item') }}"
state: present
#with_file:
- "/home/absrivastava/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/*/home/ribbon/.ssh/id_rsa.pub" This didnt work
#with_filetree:
- "/home/absrivastava/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/*/home/ribbon/.ssh/id_rsa.pub" This was not appending data
But it didnt seem to work. So i am using find to get list of files and then iterate over them.
- name: Generate ssh keys
hosts: media_nodes
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: key generation
openssh_keypair:
path: ~/.ssh/id_ssh_rsa
force: True
register: public_key
- debug:
var: public_key.public_key
- name: fetch public key from all nodes
fetch:
src: ~/.ssh/id_ssh_rsa.pub
dest: ssh-keys/
- name: Controller play
hosts: controller
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Find list of public key files
find:
paths: /home/abhilasha/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/
file_type: file
recurse: yes
patterns: ".*pub"
use_regex: yes
register: files_matched
- name: debug files matched
debug:
var: files_matched.files
- name: Debug files_matched loop
debug:
var: item.path
loop: "{{ files_matched.files|flatten(levels=1) }}"
loop_control:
label: "{{ item.path }}"
- name: Set authorized key file taken from file
authorized_key:
key: "{{ lookup('file','item') }}"
state: present
with_file:
- "{{ files_matched.files }}"
- name: Find list of public key files
This play is not working giving error
TASK [Find list of public keys] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [test_controller] => {"changed": false, "examined": 0, "files": [], "matched": 0, "msg": "/home/abhilasha/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/ was skipped as it does not seem to be a valid directory or it cannot be accessed\n"}

Answer 1

Okay so i got the issue , i was using hosts: controller for this play but the files are on my test VM instance .
But I am not sure how to still solve my problem. I want to use publoc keys on my local and then append it to controller server
- name: Fetch public key files from localhost
gather_facts: false
hosts: 127.0.0.1
connection: local
tasks:
- name: Find list of public keys
find:
paths: ssh-keys/
file_type: file
recurse: yes
patterns: "pub"
use_regex: yes
hidden: yes
register: files_matched
- name: Debug files_matched loop
debug:
var: item.path
loop: "{{ files_matched.files|flatten(levels=1) }}"
loop_control:
label: "{{ item.path }}"
- name: Add Public keys to controller authorized keys
hosts: controller
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Set authorized key file taken from file
authorized_key:
key: "{{ lookup('file','item') }}"
state: present
with_file:
- "{{ files_matched.files }}"
I am unable to use files_matched variable outside the scope of that play. How can i make this work. Thanks in advance

Answer 2

Q: "msg": "/home/abhilasha/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/ was skipped as it does not seem to be a valid directory or it cannot be accessed\n"
A: Take a look at the directory ssh-keys/ at controller and check the content. Instead of
paths: /home/abhilasha/ANSIBLE/ssh-keys/
find it in the same path
path: ssh-keys/
it has been fetch to
dest: ssh-keys/

Answer 3

Can you change the paths as below and try
- name: fetch public key from all nodes
fetch:
src: ~/.ssh/id_ssh_rsa.pub
dest: /tmp/ssh-keys/
- name: Find list of public key files
find:
paths: /tmp/ssh-keys/
file_type: file
recurse: yes
patterns: ".*pub"
use_regex: yes
register: files_matched

Answer 4

If you are trying to copy/find files from your local machine to the remote, by default the find module will run on the remote, not your local machine. As a result, the error will be thrown if those directories don't exist on your remote.
So you just tell it to "find" on your local machine by specifying delegate_to: localhost and it should work.
tasks:
- find:
paths:
- local_dir1
- local_dir2
file_type: file
patterns: '*.tgz'
register: files_output
# Execute task on this host instead of the target (inventory_hostname).
delegate_to: localhost
- block:
- set_fact:
files: "{{ files_output.files | map(attribute='path') }}"
- set_fact:
files: '{{ files + more }}'
vars:
more:
- '{{playbook_dir}}/remote.sh'
- debug:
msg: '{{ item }}'
loop: '{{ files }}'