exclude_path not working on archive module

[JS]

Hello!

I would like to exclude a folder from being archived into a tar.gz file. However, I've tried multiple options but I haven't had any luck. Any time I run the archive module, the images directory keeps on getting backed up even though it should be excluded.

- name: Archiving the Contents of all the websites
  archive:
    path: '{{ item.path }}'
    dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
    owner: centos
    group: centos
    mode: 0740
    format: gz
  with_items:
  - { path: '{{ websites_path }}/{{ site01 }}', dest: '{{ remote_backup_path }}/{{ date_time }}/{{ site01 }}/{{ site01 }}.tar.gz', exclude_path:'/var/www/html/abcd.com/test/images' }
  - { path: '{{ websites_path }}/{{ site02 }}', dest: '{{ remote_backup_path }}/{{ date_time }}/{{ site02 }}/{{ site02 }}.tar.gz' }

I've tried this as well:

- name: Archiving the Contents of all the websites
  archive:
    path: '{{ item.path }}'
    dest: '{{ item.dest }}'
    exclude_path:
    - /var/www/html/abcd.com/test/images
    owner: centos
    group: centos
    mode: 0740
    format: gz
  with_items:
  - { path: '{{ websites_path }}/{{ site01 }}', dest: '{{ remote_backup_path }}/{{ date_time }}/{{ site01 }}/{{ site01 }}.tar.gz', }
  - { path: '{{ websites_path }}/{{ site02 }}', dest: '{{ remote_backup_path }}/{{ date_time }}/{{ site02 }}/{{ site02 }}.tar.gz' }

Would someone be able to advise me on how I can exclude a particular directory from being archived?

Regards

JS

[James LeBlanc]

I've been looking into similar stuff with ansible.  It seems like there is a problem with the archive module in general (as of version 2.4, not sure if its been fixed yet).  I saw on their git hub that a pull request that fixes the archive module exclude_path option has been put up, but I don't think its been merged into the code yet.

The problem has to do with exactly how the items in the exclude_path interact with the items in the path.  As far as I can tell it makes exclude_path extremely hard to use and almost useless, but then again I don't fully understand the problem so maybe I just don't see the 'correct' way to format to work around the issue.

I've been trying to think of a work-around that I like for the current tarball I want to create and I stumbled on this hoping to find someone who had already come up with a good work-around.

My leading thoughts are:

- try to do it with the shell or command module and the tar command

- use a bunch of smaller ansible file copy operations to create a staging directory that looks like what I want and then tar up that

I don't really like either which is why I was hoping to find a better work-around....

[James LeBlanc]

Here is the github link:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/34316

[JS]

Hi James

Apologies, I thought I'd already replied to your message!

I've tried the latest version of ansible - still haven't had much luck with the archive module and exclude_path.

I've just restored to using the shell module for now to tar it up manually, but it's not great!

Regards

JS

[James LeBlanc]

No worries!

I barely check these boards because of the overwhelming amount of ansible posts that fly around here.  I can't even come close to keeping up with all of the different applications and usages that show up and get asked about on these boards.  

I'm glad you settled on a work-around while also sorry that we have to do work-arounds for something as common as tar.  I had to settle for a work-around for my ansible tar usage as well.  Maybe when I get free time I'll look into the most updated version on git hub and see if it should be fixed or not...

[Nick-H]

I have the same problem, I want to use 'exclude_path' ,but I can't get it  working. 

The issue on github is now closed even though the problem remain I think.

Was there any way to make exclusion working as it should, I mean as it is described in the doc ? 

tks

[Nick-H]

seems like the issue was closed because the module moved to community , although nothing is fixed .

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/34316

Here what I do , without success :

- name: archiving

      archive:

        mode : 0755

        path: /foo/bar/*  # here I added an extra '/*'  to make exclude_path working as suggested in the github issue 

        dest: /foo/baz

        exclude_path: 

          - /foo/bar/abc/ # this seems to be excluded ok

          - /foo/bar/123/*xyz/  # this never worked 

      async: 1000

      poll: 10

      tags: zip