How to create a directory using Ansible

How do you create a directory www at /srv on a Debian-based system using an Ansible playbook?

Solution 1:

You want the file module. To create a directory, you need to specify the option state=directory :

- name: Creates directory
  file:
    path: /src/www
    state: directory

You can see other options at https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/file_module.html

Solution 2:

You can even extend the file module and even set the owner,group & permission through it. (Ref: Ansible file documentation)

- name: Creates directory
  file:
    path: /src/www
    state: directory
    owner: www-data
    group: www-data
    mode: 0775

Even, you can create the directories recursively:

- name: Creates directory
  file:
    path: /src/www
    state: directory
    owner: www-data
    group: www-data
    mode: 0775
    recurse: yes

This way, it will create both directories, if they didn't exist.

Solution 3:

you can create using:

Latest version 2<

- name: Create Folder
  file: 
    path: /srv/www/
    owner: user 
    group: user 
    mode: 0755 
    state: directory

Older version

- name: Create Folder
  file: 
   path=/srv/www/
   owner=user 
   group=user 
   mode=0755 
   state=directory

Refer - http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/file_module.html

Solution 4:

Additional for all answers here, there is lot of situations when you need to create more then one directory so it is a good idea to use loops instead creating separate task for each directory.

- name: Creates directory
  file:
    path: "{{ item }}"
    state: directory
  with_items:
  - /srv/www
  - /dir/foo
  - /dir/bar