synchronize – A wrapper around rsync to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy
Synopsis
-
synchronize
is a wrapper around rsync to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy. - It is run and originates on the local host where Ansible is being run.
- Of course, you could just use the
command
action to call rsync yourself, but you also have to add a fair number of boilerplate options and host facts. - This module is not intended to provide access to the full power of rsync, but does make the most common invocations easier to implement. You
still
may need to call rsync directly viacommand
orshell
depending on your use case.
Parameters
Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments |
---|---|---|
archive boolean |
| Mirrors the rsync archive flag, enables recursive, links, perms, times, owner, group flags and -D. |
checksum boolean |
| Skip based on checksum, rather than mod-time & size; Note that that "archive" option is still enabled by default - the "checksum" option will not disable it. |
compress boolean |
| Compress file data during the transfer. In most cases, leave this enabled unless it causes problems. |
copy_links boolean |
| Copy symlinks as the item that they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. |
delete boolean |
| Delete files in dest that don't exist (after transfer, not before) in the src path.This option requires recursive=yes . |
dest string / required | Path on the destination host that will be synchronized from the source. The path can be absolute or relative. | |
dest_port integer | Port number for ssh on the destination host. Prior to Ansible 2.0, the ansible_ssh_port inventory var took precedence over this value. This parameter defaults to the value of ansible_ssh_port or ansible_port , the remote_port config setting or the value from ssh client configuration if none of the former have been set. | |
dirs boolean |
| Transfer directories without recursing. |
existing_only boolean |
| Skip creating new files on receiver. |
group boolean |
| Preserve group. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
link_dest list added in 2.5 | Default: null | Add a destination to hard link against during the rsync. |
links boolean |
| Copy symlinks as symlinks. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
mode string |
| Specify the direction of the synchronization. In push mode the localhost or delegate is the source. In pull mode the remote host in context is the source. |
owner boolean |
| Preserve owner (super user only). This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
partial boolean added in 2.0 |
| Tells rsync to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster. |
perms boolean |
| Preserve permissions. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
private_key path | Specify the private key to use for SSH-based rsync connections (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa ). | |
recursive boolean |
| Recurse into directories. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
rsync_opts list | Default: null | Specify additional rsync options by passing in an array. Note that an empty string in rsync_opts will end up transfer the current working directory. |
rsync_path string | Specify the rsync command to run on the remote host. See --rsync-path on the rsync man page.To specify the rsync command to run on the local host, you need to set this your task var ansible_rsync_path . | |
rsync_timeout integer | Default: 0 | Specify a --timeout for the rsync command in seconds. |
set_remote_user boolean |
| Put user@ for the remote paths. If you have a custom ssh config to define the remote user for a host that does not match the inventory user, you should set this parameter to no . |
src string / required | Path on the source host that will be synchronized to the destination. The path can be absolute or relative. | |
times boolean |
| Preserve modification times. This parameter defaults to the value of the archive option. |
use_ssh_args boolean added in 2.0 |
| Use the ssh_args specified in ansible.cfg. |
verify_host boolean added in 2.0 |
| Verify destination host key. |
Notes
Note
- rsync must be installed on both the local and remote host.
- For the
synchronize
module, the “local host” is the hostthe synchronize task originates on
, and the “destination host” is the hostsynchronize is connecting to
. - The “local host” can be changed to a different host by using
delegate_to
. This enables copying between two remote hosts or entirely on one remote machine. - The user and permissions for the synchronize
src
are those of the user running the Ansible task on the local host (or the remote_user for a delegate_to host when delegate_to is used). - The user and permissions for the synchronize
dest
are those of theremote_user
on the destination host or thebecome_user
ifbecome=yes
is active. - In Ansible 2.0 a bug in the synchronize module made become occur on the “local host”. This was fixed in Ansible 2.0.1.
- Currently, synchronize is limited to elevating permissions via passwordless sudo. This is because rsync itself is connecting to the remote machine and rsync doesn’t give us a way to pass sudo credentials in.
- Currently there are only a few connection types which support synchronize (ssh, paramiko, local, and docker) because a sync strategy has been determined for those connection types. Note that the connection for these must not need a password as rsync itself is making the connection and rsync does not provide us a way to pass a password to the connection.
- Expect that dest=~/x will be ~<remote_user>/x even if using sudo.
- Inspect the verbose output to validate the destination user/host/path are what was expected.
- To exclude files and directories from being synchronized, you may add
.rsync-filter
files to the source directory. - rsync daemon must be up and running with correct permission when using rsync protocol in source or destination path.
- The
synchronize
module forces–delay-updates
to avoid leaving a destination in a broken in-between state if the underlying rsync process encounters an error. Those synchronizing large numbers of files that are willing to trade safety for performance should call rsync directly. - link_destination is subject to the same limitations as the underlying rsync daemon. Hard links are only preserved if the relative subtrees of the source and destination are the same. Attempts to hardlink into a directory that is a subdirectory of the source will be prevented.
See Also
See also
- copy – Copy files to remote locations
- The official documentation on the copy module.
- win_robocopy – Synchronizes the contents of two directories using Robocopy
- The official documentation on the win_robocopy module.
Examples
- name: Synchronization of src on the control machine to dest on the remote hosts synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path - name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (push) synchronize: src: some/relative/path/ dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/ - name: Synchronization using rsync protocol (pull) synchronize: mode: pull src: rsync://somehost.com/path/ dest: /some/absolute/path/ - name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (push) synchronize: src: /some/absolute/path/ dest: rsync://somehost.com/path/ delegate_to: delegate.host - name: Synchronization using rsync protocol on delegate host (pull) synchronize: mode: pull src: rsync://somehost.com/path/ dest: /some/absolute/path/ delegate_to: delegate.host - name: Synchronization without any --archive options enabled synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path archive: no - name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --recursive synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path recursive: no - name: Synchronization with --archive options enabled except for --times, with --checksum option enabled synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path checksum: yes times: no - name: Synchronization without --archive options enabled except use --links synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path archive: no links: yes - name: Synchronization of two paths both on the control machine synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path delegate_to: localhost - name: Synchronization of src on the inventory host to the dest on the localhost in pull mode synchronize: mode: pull src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path - name: Synchronization of src on delegate host to dest on the current inventory host. synchronize: src: /first/absolute/path dest: /second/absolute/path delegate_to: delegate.host - name: Synchronize two directories on one remote host. synchronize: src: /first/absolute/path dest: /second/absolute/path delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}" - name: Synchronize and delete files in dest on the remote host that are not found in src of localhost. synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path delete: yes recursive: yes # This specific command is granted su privileges on the destination - name: Synchronize using an alternate rsync command synchronize: src: some/relative/path dest: /some/absolute/path rsync_path: su -c rsync # Example .rsync-filter file in the source directory # - var # exclude any path whose last part is 'var' # - /var # exclude any path starting with 'var' starting at the source directory # + /var/conf # include /var/conf even though it was previously excluded - name: Synchronize passing in extra rsync options synchronize: src: /tmp/helloworld dest: /var/www/helloworld rsync_opts: - "--no-motd" - "--exclude=.git" # Hardlink files if they didn't change - name: Use hardlinks when synchronizing filesystems synchronize: src: /tmp/path_a/foo.txt dest: /tmp/path_b/foo.txt link_dest: /tmp/path_a/ # Specify the rsync binary to use on remote host and on local host - hosts: groupofhosts vars: ansible_rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync tasks: - name: copy /tmp/localpath/ to remote location /tmp/remotepath synchronize: src: /tmp/localpath/ dest: /tmp/remotepath rsync_path: /usr/gnu/bin/rsync
Status
- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]
Red Hat Support
More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.
Authors
- Timothy Appnel (@tima)
Hint
If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.
© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/synchronize_module.html