Canonical way to correct a broken symlink

[Lorens Kockum]

Hi,

I'm just starting out with Ansible, and I probably haven't yet read all the docs I should, but I'm trying, so bear with me.

I have a simple play:

 - name: test

   file:

      path: "/path/to/file"

      owner: username

      group: usergroup

      mode: 0644

      follow: yes

My problem is that while this is sometimes a file and sometimes a link to another file, it is also sometimes a broken symlink (literally to "None" in my case, how that happens is another problem), and my play stops short (in check mode!) saying that I need to specify "force" to create the destination.

I do not want to create the destination (especially since it's "None"); if the symlink is broken I would like to replace it with an empty file (or maybe a template), unless I'm in check mode when I should simply note that a correction should be made.

Googling ansible and broken symlink didn't help me, so I started out with the stat module, and conditionals on the values and success of stat, asking myself if stat.originalfile is the destination of the link, and if I should use that or do two stats on the file, one with follow and one without, and when I was on my fourth task I decided to ask you all whether there's a simpler way :)

HAND

[Johannes Kastl]

On 09.01.17 21:26 Lorens Kockum wrote:

> My problem is that while this is sometimes a file and sometimes a
> link to another file, it is also sometimes a broken symlink
> (literally to "None" in my case, how that happens is another
> problem), and my play stops short (in check mode!) saying that I
> need to specify "force" to create the destination.
>
> I do not want to create the destination (especially since it's
> "None"); if the symlink is broken I would like to replace it with
> an empty file (or maybe a template), unless I'm in check mode when
> I should simply note that a correction should be made.

Basically I guess you would have to check first, what state you have,
e.g. a file, a link or a broken link. I guess using the stat module
should do most of this.

https://docs.ansible.com/stat_module.html

Register the variable of this task and depending on its result start
your other tasks.

https://docs.ansible.com/playbooks_variables.html

I'm in a hurry, so please excuse my brevity.

Johannes