The find module doesn't seem to work with certain file types (block devices)

[Geromy Harper]

Just curious if this is a bug in the find module or if it's working as intended?

Running ansible 2.0.0.2

Demo snippet:

- name: module find mpath

  find: paths='/dev/mapper' patterns='mpath*p*'

  register: modfind_result

- debug: var=modfind_result

- name: shell find mpath

  shell: find /dev/mapper -name mpath*p*

  register: shfind_result

- debug: var=shfind_result

Output:

TASK [module find mpath] *******************************************************

ok: [devwebdb0]

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************

ok: [devwebdb0] => {

    "modfind_result": {

        "changed": false, 

        "examined": 3, 

        "files": [], 

        "matched": 0, 

        "msg": ""

    }

}

TASK [shell find mpath] ********************************************************

changed: [devwebdb0]

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************

ok: [devwebdb0] => {

    "shfind_result": {

        "changed": true, 

        "cmd": "find /dev/mapper -name mpath*p*", 

        "delta": "0:00:00.404326", 

        "end": "2016-02-10 14:51:21.624126", 

        "rc": 0, 

        "start": "2016-02-10 14:51:21.219800", 

        "stderr": "", 

        "stdout": "/dev/mapper/mpath5p1", 

        "stdout_lines": [

            "/dev/mapper/mpath5p1"

        ], 

        "warnings": []

    }

}

modfind_result.examined=3, so it appears to be seeing the device files, however modfind_result.files=[], which would make me think it's not matching the pattern.  Using patterns="*" or leaving it out entirely returns the same results however, and it works just fine if I try and match against a text or binary file.

[Brian Coca]

find uses stat.S_ISREG to check if it is a regular file, so  devices, sockets, pipes will all be ignored, we might want to add an option to control the file types.

​-----------

Brian Coca​