ansible: Is there something like with_fileglobs fo

Question

I'm trying to turn these lines into something I can put in an ansible playbook:

# Install Prezto files
shopt -s extglob
shopt -s nullglob
files=( "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}"/.zprezto/runcoms/!(README.md) )
for rcfile in "${files[@]}"; do
    [[ -f $rcfile ]] && ln -s "$rcfile" "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.${rcfile##*/}"
done

So far I've got the following:

- name: Link Prezto files
  file: src={{ item }} dest=~ state=link
  with_fileglob:
    - ~/.zprezto/runcoms/z*

I know it isn't the same, but it would select the same files: except with_fileglob looks on the host machine, and I want it to look on the remote machine.

Is there any way to do this, or should I just use a shell script?

Answer 1

A clean Ansible way of purging unwanted files matching a glob is:

- name: List all tmp files
  find:
    paths: /tmp/foo
    patterns: "*.tmp"
  register: tmp_glob

- name: Cleanup tmp files
  file:
    path: "{{ item.path }}"
    state: absent
  with_items:
    - "{{ tmp_glob.files }}"

Answer 2

Bruce P's solution works, but it requires an addition file and gets a little messy. Below is a pure ansible solution.

The first task grabs a list of filenames and stores it in files_to_copy. The second task appends each filename to the path you provide and creates symlinks.

- name: grab file list
  shell: ls /path/to/src
  register: files_to_copy
- name: create symbolic links
  file:
    src: "/path/to/src/{{ item }}"
    dest: "path/to/dest/{{ item }}"
    state: link
  with_items: files_to_copy.stdout_lines

Answer 3

You can use with_lines to accomplish this:

- name: Link Prezto files
  file: src={{ item }} dest=~ state=link
  with_lines: ls ~/.zprezto/runcoms/z*

Answer 4

The file module does indeed look on the server where ansible is running for files when using with_fileglob, etc. Since you want to work with files that exist solely on the remote machine then you could do a couple things. One approach would be to copy over a shell script in one task then invoke it in the next task. You could even use the fact that the file was copied as a way to only run the script if it didn't already exist:

- name: Copy link script
  copy: src=/path/to/foo.sh
        dest=/target/path/to/foo.sh
        mode=0755
  register: copied_script

- name: Invoke link script
  command: /target/path/to/foo.sh
  when: copied_script.changed

Another approach would be to create an entire command line that does what you want and invoke it using the shell module:

- name: Generate links
  shell: find ~/.zprezto/runcoms/z* -exec ln -s {} ~ \;