How to replace a directory with a symlink using ansible?

Question

I would like to replace /etc/nginx/sites-enabled with a symlink to my repo. I'm trying to do this using file module, but that doesn't work as the file module doesn't remove a directory with force option.

- name: setup nginx sites-available symlink   file: path=/etc/nginx/sites-available src=/repo/etc/nginx/sites-available state=link force=yes   notify: restart nginx 

I could fall back to using shell.

- name: setup nginx sites-available symlink   shell: test -d /etc/nginx/sites-available && rm -r /etc/nginx/sites-available && ln -sT /repo/etc/nginx/sites-available /etc/nginx/sites-available   notify: restart nginx   

Is there any better way to achieve this instead of falling back to shell?

Answer 1

When you take your action, it's actually things:

• delete a folder
• add a symlink in its place

This is probably also the cleanest way to represent in Ansible:

tasks:   - name: remove the folder     file: path=/etc/nginx/sites-available state=absent     - name: setup nginx sites-available symlink     file: path=/etc/nginx/sites-available            src=/repo/etc/nginx/sites-available            state=link            force=yes     notify: restart nginx 

But, always removing and adding the symlink is not so nice, so adding a task to check the link target might be a nice addition:

  - name: check the current symlink     stat: path=/etc/nginx/sites-available      register: sites_available 

And a 'when' condition to the delete task:

  - name: remove the folder (only if it is a folder)     file: path=/etc/nginx/sites-available state=absent     when: sites_available.stat.isdir is defined and sites_available.stat.isdir