Remove CRON entry not created with Ansible

[Adam]

Via Ansible, is there any way to remove a CRON job entry that was not created by Ansible?  For example, I have the entry below, but as you can see, it does not have the #Ansible above it, so it does not have a "name" parameter to remove.

4 3 * * * /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

[Dick Visser]

No. You'd have to resort to some shell workaround, for example:

grep -v /sbin/shutdown | crontab -

On Fri, 12 Nov 2021 at 18:30, Adam <adam.f...@gmail.com> wrote:

Via Ansible, is there any way to remove a CRON job entry that was not created by Ansible?  For example, I have the entry below, but as you can see, it does not have the #Ansible above it, so it does not have a "name" parameter to remove.

4 3 * * * /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

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Dick Visser
Trust & Identity Service Operations Manager
GÉANT

[Vladimir Botka]

> On Fri, 12 Nov 2021 at 18:30, Adam <adam.f...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Via Ansible, is there any way to remove a CRON job entry that was not
> > created by Ansible? For example, I have the entry below, but as you can
> > see, it does not have the #Ansible above it, so it does not have a "name"
> > parameter to remove.
> >
> > 4 3 * * * /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

Put the entries into a dictionary and test it in scratch first

my_cron:
cron_file: /scratch/crontab
user: admin
entries:
- name: shutdown
state: present
disabled: false
minute: 4
hour: 3
job: '/sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1'

Given the file

shell> cat /scratch/crontab
4 3 * * * admin /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

add the descriptions of the crontab entries, e.g.

- lineinfile:
path: "{{ my_cron.cron_file }}"
line: '#Ansible: {{ item.name }}'
regexp: '^#Ansible: {{ item.name }}$'
insertbefore: '{{ item.job }}'
loop: "{{ my_cron.entries }}"
when: not item.disabled

The description was added to the crontab

shell> cat /scratch/crontab
#Ansible: shutdown
4 3 * * * admin /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

Now, if you disable the entry

my_cron:
cron_file: /scratch/crontab
user: admin
entries:
- name: shutdown
state: present
disabled: true
minute: 4
hour: 3
job: '/sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1'

the *cron* module works as expected

- cron:
cron_file: "{{ my_cron.cron_file }}"
user: "{{ my_cron.user }}"
state: "{{ item.state|d('present') }}"
disabled: "{{ item.disabled|d(false) }}"
name: "{{ item.name }}"
job: "{{ item.job }}"
minute: "{{ item.minute|d(omit) }}"
hour: "{{ item.hour|d(omit) }}"
day: "{{ item.day|d(omit) }}"
month: "{{ item.month|d(omit) }}"
weekday: "{{ item.weekday|d(omit) }}"
loop: "{{ my_cron.entries }}"

and disables the entry in the crontab

shell> cat /scratch/crontab
#Ansible: shutdown
#4 3 * * * admin /sbin/shutdown -r now >/dev/null 2>&1

These two tasks are idempotent. You'll have to run such playbook
twice, at least for the first time to add missing descriptions to
enabled items. Then you can keep the *lineinfile* task in the playbook
to make sure the descriptions are present.

--
Vladimir Botka