synchronize¶

Collection Note

This module is part of the ansible.posix collection. To install the collection, use:

ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.posix

Added in version 1.0.0.

Synopsis¶

M(ansible.posix.synchronize) is a wrapper around C(rsync) to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy.
It is run and originates on the local host where Ansible is being run.
Of course, you could just use the M(ansible.builtin.command) action to call C(rsync) yourself, but you also have to add a fair number of boilerplate options and host facts.
This module is not intended to provide access to the full power of C(rsync), but does make the most common invocations easier to implement. You I(still) may need to call C(rsync) directly via M(ansible.builtin.command) or M(ansible.builtin.shell) depending on your use case.

Parameters¶

Parameter	Defaults / Choices	Comments
_local_rsync_password str		Internal use only, never logged.
_local_rsync_path path	Default: rsync	Internal use only.
_ssh_args str		Internal use only. See O(use_ssh_args) for ssh arg settings.
_substitute_controller bool		Internal use only.
archive bool	Default: True	Mirrors the rsync archive flag, enables recursive, links, perms, times, owner, group flags, and C(-D).
checksum bool		Skip based on checksum, rather than mod-time & size; Note that that O(archive) option is still enabled by default - the O(checksum) option will not disable it.
compress bool	Default: True	Compress file data during the transfer. In most cases, leave this enabled unless it causes problems.
copy_links bool		Copy symlinks as the item that they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
delay_updates bool	Default: True	This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid succession. Version Added: 1.3.0
delete bool		Delete files in O(dest) that do not exist (after transfer, not before) in the O(src) path. This option requires O(recursive=true). This option ignores excluded files and behaves like the rsync opt C(--delete-after).
dest path required		Path on the destination host that will be synchronized from the source. The path can be absolute or relative.
dest_port int		Port number for ssh on the destination host. Prior to Ansible 2.0, the C(ansible_ssh_port) inventory var took precedence over this value. This parameter defaults to the value of C(ansible_port), the C(remote_port) config setting or the value from ssh client configuration if none of the former have been set.
dirs bool		Transfer directories without recursing.
existing_only bool		Skip creating new files on receiver.
group bool		Preserve group. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
link_dest list / elements=path		Add a destination to hard link against during the rsync.
links bool		Copy symlinks as symlinks. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
mode str	Default: push Choices: pull, push	Specify the direction of the synchronization. In V(push) mode the localhost or delegate is the source. In V(pull) mode the remote host in context is the source.
owner bool		Preserve owner (super user only). This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
partial bool		Tells rsync to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
perms bool		Preserve permissions. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
private_key path		Specify the private key to use for SSH-based rsync connections (e.g. C(~/.ssh/id_rsa)).
recursive bool		Recurse into directories. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
rsync_opts list / elements=str		Specify additional rsync options by passing in an array. Note that an empty string in C(rsync_opts) will end up transfer the current working directory.
rsync_path str		Specify the rsync command to run on the remote host. See C(--rsync-path) on the rsync man page. To specify the rsync command to run on the local host, you need to set this your task var C(ansible_rsync_path).
rsync_timeout int		Specify a C(--timeout) for the rsync command in seconds.
set_remote_user bool	Default: True	Put C(user@) for the remote paths. If you have a custom ssh config to define the remote user for a host that does not match the inventory user, you should set this parameter to V(false).
src path required		Path on the source host that will be synchronized to the destination. The path can be absolute or relative.
ssh_connection_multiplexing bool		SSH connection multiplexing for rsync is disabled by default to prevent misconfigured ControlSockets from resulting in failed SSH connections. This is accomplished by setting the SSH C(ControlSocket) to C(none). Set this option to V(true) to allow multiplexing and reduce SSH connection overhead. Note that simply setting this option to V(true) is not enough; You must also configure SSH connection multiplexing in your SSH client config by setting values for C(ControlMaster), C(ControlPersist) and C(ControlPath).
times bool		Preserve modification times. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option.
use_ssh_args bool		In Ansible 2.10 and lower, it uses the ssh_args specified in C(ansible.cfg). In Ansible 2.11 and onwards, when set to V(true), it uses all SSH connection configurations like C(ansible_ssh_args), C(ansible_ssh_common_args), and C(ansible_ssh_extra_args).
verify_host bool		Verify destination host key.

Notes¶

Note

C(rsync) must be installed on both the local and remote host.
For the M(ansible.posix.synchronize) module, the "local host" is the host I(the synchronize task originates on), and the "destination host" is the host I(synchronize is connecting to).
The "local host" can be changed to a different host by using C(delegate_to). This enables copying between two remote hosts or entirely on one remote machine.
The user and permissions for the synchronize O(src) are those of the user running the Ansible task on the local host (or the remote_user for a C(delegate_to) host when C(delegate_to) is used).
The user and permissions for the synchronize dest are those of the remote_user on the destination host or the become_user if become=yes is active.
In Ansible 2.0 a bug in the synchronize module made become occur on the "local host". This was fixed in Ansible 2.0.1.
Currently, M(ansible.posix.synchronize) is limited to elevating permissions via passwordless sudo. This is because rsync itself is connecting to the remote machine and rsync doesn't give us a way to pass sudo credentials in.
Currently there are only a few connection types which support synchronize (ssh, paramiko, local, and docker) because a sync strategy has been determined for those connection types. Note that the connection for these must not need a password as rsync itself is making the connection and rsync does not provide us a way to pass a password to the connection.
Expect that O(dest=~/x) will be V(~/x) even if using sudo.
Inspect the verbose output to validate the destination user/host/path are what was expected.
To exclude files and directories from being synchronized, you may add C(.rsync-filter) files to the source directory.
rsync daemon must be up and running with correct permission when using rsync protocol in source or destination path.
The C(synchronize) module enables C(--delay-updates) by default to avoid leaving a destination in a broken in-between state if the underlying rsync process encounters an error. Those synchronizing large numbers of files that are willing to trade safety for performance should disable this option.
link_destination is subject to the same limitations as the underlying rsync daemon. Hard links are only preserved if the relative subtrees of the source and destination are the same. Attempts to hardlink into a directory that is a subdirectory of the source will be prevented.

Examples¶

- name: Synchronization of src on the control machine to dest on the remote hosts
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path

- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (push)
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path/
    dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/

- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (pull)
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    mode: pull
    src: rsync://somehost.com/path/
    dest: /some/absolute/path/

- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (push)
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: /some/absolute/path/
    dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/
  delegate_to: delegate.host

- name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (pull)
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    mode: pull
    src: rsync://somehost.com/path/
    dest: /some/absolute/path/
  delegate_to: delegate.host

- name: Synchronization without any --archive options enabled
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    archive: false

- name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --recursive
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    recursive: false

- name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --times, with --checksum option enabled
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    checksum: true
    times: false

- name: Synchronization without --archive options enabled except use --links
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    archive: false
    links: true

- name: Synchronization of two paths both on the control machine
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Synchronization of src on the inventory host to the dest on the localhost in pull mode
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    mode: pull
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path

- name: Synchronization of src on delegate host to dest on the current inventory host.
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: /first/absolute/path
    dest: /second/absolute/path
  delegate_to: delegate.host

- name: Synchronize two directories on one remote host.
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: /first/absolute/path
    dest: /second/absolute/path
  delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"

- name: Synchronize and delete files in dest on the remote host that are not found in src of localhost.
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    delete: true
    recursive: true

# This specific command is granted su privileges on the destination
- name: Synchronize using an alternate rsync command
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: some/relative/path
    dest: /some/absolute/path
    rsync_path: su -c rsync

# Example .rsync-filter file in the source directory
# - var       # exclude any path whose last part is 'var'
# - /var      # exclude any path starting with 'var' starting at the source directory
# + /var/conf # include /var/conf even though it was previously excluded

- name: Synchronize passing in extra rsync options
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: /tmp/helloworld
    dest: /var/www/helloworld
    rsync_opts:
      - "--no-motd"
      - "--exclude=.git"

# Hardlink files if they didn't change
- name: Use hardlinks when synchronizing filesystems
  ansible.posix.synchronize:
    src: /tmp/path_a/foo.txt
    dest: /tmp/path_b/foo.txt
    link_dest: /tmp/path_a/

# Specify the rsync binary to use on remote host and on local host
- hosts: groupofhosts
  vars:
    ansible_rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync

  tasks:
    - name: copy /tmp/localpath/ to remote location /tmp/remotepath
      ansible.posix.synchronize:
        src: /tmp/localpath/
        dest: /tmp/remotepath
        rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync

Authors¶

Timothy Appnel (@tima)