check if a (file or directory) symbolic links exists on a windows file system with the help of win_file

[ishan jain]

I am trying to gather custom facts for a windows 2012 R2 server while avoiding to write powershell scripts. win_stat is something that can apparently be very useful to me but i am getting confused about its exact behavior.

I have a file structure like this:

E:\

E:\link1

E:\folder\link2

E:\folder\link2\some_dir\link3.jar

Link1 and 2 are directory symbolic links and link3 is a file symbolic link and is currently active in a java process. I am trying to check if these links exists or not via this kink of script:

---

- hosts: windows

  tasks:

    - name: check symbolic links

      win_stat: path=E:\link1

      register: result

      ignore_errors: yes

      

    - debug: msg="{{result}}"

I expect to check something like result.stats.attributes == ReparsePoint to see if this indeed is a symlink. But i am getting some varied results when i execute the script for the above folder structure which are listed below. I will try to mark my questions with a number.

1) First question, is this a good solution to check for directory n file symbolic link or is there a better one ?

2) Problem with the reporting of directory symbolic link

win_stat: path=E:\link1 

or 

win_stat: path=E:\link1\  

or

win_stat: path="E:\link1"

These statements, when the symlink is at the root level of a drive, gives me an error that this link does not exist while it is there:

 "msg": {

        "changed": false,

        "stat": {

            "exists": false

        }

    }

When i change it to:

win_stat: path="E:\\test"

It works perfectly fine with output:

 "msg": {

        "changed": false,

        "stat": {

            "attributes": "Directory, ReparsePoint",

            "creationtime": 1458045768.6789002,

            "exists": true,

            "extension": "",

            "isdir": true,

            "lastaccesstime": 1458045768.6789002,

            "lastwritetime": 1458045768.6789002,

            "owner": "BUILTIN\\Administrators"

        }

    }

While the similar statements for the directory symlink inside a folder

win_stat: path=E:\folder\link2

or

win_stat: path="E:\folder\link2"

or

win_stat: path="E:\\folder\\link2"

or

win_stat: path=E:\\folder\\link2

or

win_stat: path=E:\folder\\link2 (notice only one \\)

They all seems to be working fine. So what exactly is the syntax here so that it will work at all levels ?

3) Problems with file symbolic links that are in use 

For the statements:

win_stat: path=E:\folder\link2\some_dir\link3.jar

I get the following error because the file is actively in use:

"msg": {

        "changed": false,

        "exception": "At C:\\Users\\Ishan\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\ansible-tmp-1458122016.24-112690440585191\\win_stat.ps1:231 char:9\r\n+         $fp = [System.IO.File]::Open($path, [System.IO.Filemode]::Open, [System. ...\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~",

        "failed": true,

        "msg": "Exception calling \"Open\" with \"3\" argument(s): \"The process cannot access the file 'E:\\folder\\link2\\some_dir\\link3.jar' because it is being used by another process.\""

    }

How can i make sure that the file link in use can at least be read so that i can know more about it ?

[ishan jain]

4) I have a file symbolic link E:\folder\link.exe pointing to an exe file and this link is not actively in use by a process. So when i use

 win_stat: path="E:\folder\link.exe"

i get an answer that it does not exist.

 "msg": {

        "changed": false,

        "stat": {

            "exists": false

        }

    }

But when i use:

 win_stat: path="E:\\folder\\link.exe"

I get a proper result.

Probably related to the above questions, but what is the proper syntax to specify a path here ?

[J Hawkesworth]

I don't have any experience of using symlinks on windows, but my advice for construction windows paths (assuming you are using ansible 2.0 or later) is...

1/ If you need to double quote your path names, then always use double backslash for the path separator

So 

win_stat: "path=E:\\folder\\link.exe"

2/ I would also advise using the 'yaml style' way of supplying module parameters, rather than using the key=value style, if only because 'yaml style' makes you put 1 parameter per line, which often means you don't need to use any quotes at all for hard-coded windows paths:

So like this (yaml style parameter)
win_stat:

   path: E:\folder\link.exe

Hope this helps,

Jon

[ishan jain]

Thanks for the answer. I figured i should always quote and use double slashes to be on safe side.

I am still stuck with problem number 3. can you help me with that  ?