Use the file module to touch a file on managed hosts. This works like the touch command, creating an empty file if it does not exist, and updating its modification time if it does exist. In this example, in addition to touching the file, Ansible ensures that the owning user, group, and permissions of the file are set to specific values.

- name: Touch a file and set permissions
  file:
    path: /path/to/file
    owner: user1
    group: group1
    mode: 0640
    state: touch

Example outcome:

[user@host ~]$ ls -l file
-rw-r-----.  user1 group1 0 Nov 25 08:00 file

You can use the file module to ensure that a new or existing file has the correct permissions or SELinux type as well.

For example, the following file has retained the default SELinux context relative to a user's home directory, which is not the desired context.

[user@host ~]$ ls -Z samba_file
-rw-r--r--.  owner group unconfined_u:object_r:user_home_t:s0 samba_file

The following task ensures that the SELinux context type attribute of the samba_file file is the desired samba_share_t type. This behavior is similar to the Linux chcon command.

- name: SELinux type is set to samba_share_t
  file:
    path: /path/to/samba_file
    setype: samba_share_t

Example outcome:

[user@host ~]$ ls -Z samba_file
-rw-r--r--.  owner group unconfined_u:object_r:samba_share_t:s0 samba_file

The file module acts like chcon when setting file contexts. Changes made with that module could be unexpectedly undone by running restorecon. After using file to set the context, you can use sefcontext from the collection of System modules to update the SELinux policy like semanage fcontext.

- name: SELinux type is persistently set to samba_share_t
  sefcontext:
    target: /path/to/samba_file
    setype: samba_share_t
    state: present

Example outcome:

[user@host ~]$ ls -Z samba_file
-rw-r--r--.  owner group unconfined_u:object_r:samba_share_t:s0 samba_file

In this example, the copy module is used to copy a file located in the Ansible working directory on the control node to selected managed hosts.

By default this module assumes that force: yes is set. That forces the module to overwrite the remote file if it exists but contains different contents from the file being copied. If force: no is set, then it only copies the file to the managed host if it does not already exist.

- name: Copy a file to managed hosts
  copy:
    src: file
    dest: /path/to/file

To retrieve files from managed hosts use the fetch module. This could be used to retrieve a file such as an SSH public key from a reference system before distributing it to other managed hosts.

- name: Retrieve SSH key from reference host
  fetch:
    src: "/home/{{ user }}/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
    dest: "files/keys/{{ user }}.pub"

To ensure a specific single line of text exists in an existing file, use the lineinfile module:

- name: Add a line of text to a file
  lineinfile:
    path: /path/to/file
    line: 'Add this line to the file'
    state: present

To add a block of text to an existing file, use the blockinfile module:

- name: Add additional lines to a file
  blockinfile:
    path: /path/to/file
    block: |
      First line in the additional block of text
      Second line in the additional block of text
    state: present

# BEGIN ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
First line in the additional block of text
Second line in the additional block of text
# END ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK

A basic example to remove a file from managed hosts is to use the file module with the state: absent parameter. The state parameter is optional to many modules. You should always make your intentions clear whether you want state: present or state: absent for several reasons. Some modules support other options as well. It is possible that the default could change at some point, but perhaps most importantly, it makes it easier to understand the state the system should be in based on your task.

- name: Make sure a file does not exist on managed hosts
  file:
    dest: /path/to/file
    state: absent

The stat module retrieves facts for a file, similar to the Linux stat command. Parameters provide the functionality to retrieve file attributes, determine the checksum of a file, and more.

The stat module returns a hash dictionary of values containing the file status data, which allows you to refer to individual pieces of information using separate variables.

The following example registers the results of a stat module and then prints the MD5 checksum of the file that it checked. (The more modern SHA256 algorithm is also available; MD5 is being used here for easier legibility.)

- name: Verify the checksum of a file
  stat:
    path: /path/to/file
    checksum_algorithm: md5
  register: result

- debug
    msg: "The checksum of the file is {{ result.stat.checksum }}"

The outcome should be similar to the following:

TASK [Get md5 checksum of a file] *****************************************
ok: [hostname]

TASK [debug] **************************************************************
ok: [hostname] => {
    "msg": "The checksum of the file is 5f76590425303022e933c43a7f2092a3"
}

Information about the values returned by the stat module are documented by ansible-doc, or you can register a variable and display its contents to see what is available:

- name: Examine all stat output of /etc/passwd
  hosts: localhost

  tasks:
    - name: stat /etc/passwd
      stat:
        path: /etc/passwd
      register: results

    - name: Display stat results
      debug:
        var: results

The synchronize module is a wrapper around the rsync tool, which simplifies common file management tasks in your playbooks. The rsync tool must be installed on both the local and remote host. By default, when using the synchronize module, the "local host" is the host that the synchronize task originates on (usually the control node), and the "destination host" is the host that synchronize connects to.

The following example synchronizes a file located in the Ansible working directory to the managed hosts:

- name: synchronize local file to remote files
  synchronize:
    src: file
    dest: /path/to/file

There are many ways to use the synchronize module and its many parameters, including synchronizing directories. Run the ansible-doc synchronize command for additional parameters and playbook examples.