Ansible: How to delete files and folders inside a directory? - ansible

Question

The below code only deletes the first file it gets inside the web dir. I want to remove all the files and folders inside the web directory and retain the web directory. How can I do that?
- name: remove web dir contents
file: path='/home/mydata/web/{{ item }}' state=absent
with_fileglob:
- /home/mydata/web/*
Note: I've tried rm -rf using command and shell, but they don't work. Perhaps I am using them wrongly.
Any help in the right direction will be appreciated.
I am using ansible 2.1.0.0

Answer 1

- name: Delete content & directory
file:
state: absent
path: /home/mydata/web/
Note: this will delete the directory too.

Answer 2

Remove the directory (basically a copy of https://stackoverflow.com/a/38201611/1695680), Ansible does this operation with rmtree under the hood.
- name: remove files and directories
file:
state: "{{ item }}"
path: "/srv/deleteme/"
owner: 1000 # set your owner, group, and mode accordingly
group: 1000
mode: '0777'
with_items:
- absent
- directory
If you don't have the luxury of removing the whole directory and recreating it, you can scan it for files, (and directories), and delete them one by one. Which will take a while. You probably want to make sure you have [ssh_connection]\npipelining = True in your ansible.cfg on.
- block:
- name: 'collect files'
find:
paths: "/srv/deleteme/"
hidden: True
recurse: True
# file_type: any # Added in ansible 2.3
register: collected_files
- name: 'collect directories'
find:
paths: "/srv/deleteme/"
hidden: True
recurse: True
file_type: directory
register: collected_directories
- name: remove collected files and directories
file:
path: "{{ item.path }}"
state: absent
with_items: >
{{
collected_files.files
+ collected_directories.files
}}

Answer 3

Using shell module (idempotent too):
- shell: /bin/rm -rf /home/mydata/web/*
If there are dot/hidden files:
- shell: /bin/rm -rf /home/mydata/web/* /home/mydata/web/.*
Cleanest solution if you don't care about creation date and owner/permissions:
- file: path=/home/mydata/web state=absent
- file: path=/home/mydata/web state=directory

Answer 4

I really didn't like the rm solution, also ansible gives you warnings about using rm.
So here is how to do it without the need of rm and without ansible warnings.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Ansible delete file glob
find:
paths: /etc/Ansible
patterns: "*.txt"
register: files_to_delete
- name: Ansible remove file glob
file:
path: "{{ item.path }}"
state: absent
with_items: "{{ files_to_delete.files }}"
source: http://www.mydailytutorials.com/ansible-delete-multiple-files-directories-ansible/

Answer 5

try the below command, it should work
- shell: ls -1 /some/dir
register: contents
- file: path=/some/dir/{{ item }} state=absent
with_items: {{ contents.stdout_lines }}

Answer 6

That's what I come up with:
- name: Get directory listing
find:
path: "{{ directory }}"
file_type: any
hidden: yes
register: directory_content_result
- name: Remove directory content
file:
path: "{{ item.path }}"
state: absent
with_items: "{{ directory_content_result.files }}"
loop_control:
label: "{{ item.path }}"
First, we're getting directory listing with find, setting
file_type to any, so we wouldn't miss nested directories and links
hidden to yes, so we don't skip hidden files
also, do not set recurse to yes, since it is not only unnecessary, but may increase execution time.
Then, we go through that list with file module. It's output is a bit verbose, so loop_control.label will help us with limiting output (found this advice here).
But I found previous solution to be somewhat slow, since it iterates through the content, so I went with:
- name: Get directory stats
stat:
path: "{{ directory }}"
register: directory_stat
- name: Delete directory
file:
path: "{{ directory }}"
state: absent
- name: Create directory
file:
path: "{{ directory }}"
state: directory
owner: "{{ directory_stat.stat.pw_name }}"
group: "{{ directory_stat.stat.gr_name }}"
mode: "{{ directory_stat.stat.mode }}"
get directory properties with the stat
delete directory
recreate directory with the same properties.
That was enough for me, but you can add attributes as well, if you want.

Answer 7

Using file glob also it will work. There is some syntax error in the code you posted. I have modified and tested this should work.
- name: remove web dir contents
file:
path: "{{ item }}"
state: absent
with_fileglob:
- "/home/mydata/web/*"

Answer 8

Following up on the most upvoted answer here (which I cannot edit since "edit queue is full"):
- name: Delete content & directory
file:
state: absent
path: /home/mydata/web/
- name: Re-create the directory
file:
state: directory
path: /home/mydata/web/

Answer 9

While Ansible is still debating to implement state = empty
https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/issues/902
my_folder: "/home/mydata/web/"
empty_path: "/tmp/empty"
- name: "Create empty folder for wiping."
file:
path: "{{ empty_path }}"
state: directory
- name: "Wipe clean {{ my_folder }} with empty folder hack."
synchronize:
mode: push
#note the backslash here
src: "{{ empty_path }}/"
dest: "{{ nl_code_path }}"
recursive: yes
delete: yes
delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
Note though, with synchronize you should be able to sync your files (with delete) properly anyway.

Answer 10

Created an overall rehauled and fail-safe implementation from all comments and suggestions:
# collect stats about the dir
- name: check directory exists
stat:
path: '{{ directory_path }}'
register: dir_to_delete
# delete directory if condition is true
- name: purge {{directory_path}}
file:
state: absent
path: '{{ directory_path }}'
when: dir_to_delete.stat.exists and dir_to_delete.stat.isdir
# create directory if deleted (or if it didn't exist at all)
- name: create directory again
file:
state: directory
path: '{{ directory_path }}'
when: dir_to_delete is defined or dir_to_delete.stat.exist == False

Answer 11

Below code worked for me :
- name: Get directory listing
become: yes
find:
paths: /applications/cache
patterns: '*'
hidden: yes
register: directory_content_result
- name: Remove directory content
become: yes
file:
path: "{{ item.path }}"
state: absent
with_items: "{{ directory_content_result.files }}"

Answer 12

There is an issue open with respect to this.
For now, the solution works for me: create a empty folder locally and synchronize it with the remote one.
Here is a sample playbook:
- name: "Empty directory"
hosts: *
tasks:
- name: "Create an empty directory (locally)"
local_action:
module: file
state: directory
path: "/tmp/empty"
- name: Empty remote directory
synchronize:
src: /tmp/empty/
dest: /home/mydata/web/
delete: yes
recursive: yes

Answer 13

I want to make sure that the find command only deletes everything inside the directory and leave the directory intact because in my case the directory is a filesystem. The system will generate an error when trying to delete a filesystem but that is not a nice option. Iam using the shell option because that is the only working option I found so far for this question.
What I did:
Edit the hosts file to put in some variables:
[all:vars]
COGNOS_HOME=/tmp/cognos
find=/bin/find
And create a playbook:
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Ansible remove files
shell: "{{ find }} {{ COGNOS_HOME }} -xdev -mindepth 1 -delete"
This will delete all files and directories in the COGNOS_HOME variable directory/filesystem. The "-mindepth 1" option makes sure that the current directory will not be touched.

Answer 14

I have written an custom ansible module to cleanup files based on multiple filters like age, timestamp, glob patterns, etc.
It is also compatible with ansible older versions. It can be found here.
Here is an example:
- cleanup_files:
path_pattern: /tmp/*.log
state: absent
excludes:
- foo*
- bar*

Answer 15

Just a small cleaner copy & paste template of ThorSummoners answer, if you are using Ansible >= 2.3 (distinction between files and dirs not necessary anymore.)
- name: Collect all fs items inside dir
find:
path: "{{ target_directory_path }}"
hidden: true
file_type: any
changed_when: false
register: collected_fsitems
- name: Remove all fs items inside dir
file:
path: "{{ item.path }}"
state: absent
with_items: "{{ collected_fsitems.files }}"
when: collected_fsitems.matched|int != 0

Answer 16

Isn't it that simple ... tested working ..
eg.
---
- hosts: localhost
vars:
cleandir: /var/lib/cloud/
tasks:
- shell: ls -a -I '.' -I '..' {{ cleandir }}
register: ls2del
ignore_errors: yes
- name: Cleanup {{ cleandir }}
file:
path: "{{ cleandir }}{{ item }}"
state: absent
with_items: "{{ ls2del.stdout_lines }}"

Answer 17

- name: Files to delete search
find:
paths: /home/mydata/web/
file_type: any
register: files_to_delete
- name: Deleting files to delete
file:
path: '{{ item.path }}'
state: absent
with_items: "{{ files_to_delete.files }}"

Answer 18

I like the following solution:
- name: remove web dir contents
command:
cmd: "find . -path '*/*' -delete -print"
chdir: "/home/mydata/web/"
register: web_files_list
changed_when: web_files_list.stdout | length > 0
because it is:
simple
idempotent
fast

Answer 19

Assuming you are always in Linux, try the find cmd.
- name: Clean everything inside {{ item }}
shell: test -d {{ item }} && find {{ item }} -path '{{ item }}/*' -prune -exec rm -rf {} \;
with_items: [/home/mydata/web]
This should wipe out files/folders/hidden under /home/mydata/web

Answer 20

- name: delete old data and clean cache
file:
path: "{{ item[0] }}"
state: "{{ item[1] }}"
with_nested:
- [ "/data/server/{{ app_name }}/webapps/", "/data/server/{{ app_name }}/work/" ]
- [ "absent", "directory" ]
ignore_errors: yes

Answer 21

Below worked for me,
- name: Ansible delete html directory
file:
path: /var/www/html
state: directory