community.general.write_binary_file module – Write binary file from Base64 encoded input

Note

This module is part of the community.general collection (version 13.3.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.general.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.general.write_binary_file.

New in community.general 13.3.0

Synopsis

• Given Base64 encoded content, write it to a file.

• This is useful when Base64-encoded binary content (that is not valid UTF-8) is retrieved from a credentials store (or similar sources) and needs to be written to a file. The ansible.builtin.copy module with its content parameter can only be used to write content that is valid UTF-8 encoded text.

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
attributes aliases: attr string	The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have. To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system. This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr. The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.
backup boolean	Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly. Choices: false ← (default) true
content string / required	The Base64 encoded content.
follow boolean	Whether filesystem links in the destination should be followed. If set to true and path is a symlink, the file pointed to by path (resp. after following further links) is modified, instead of path itself. Choices: false ← (default) true
force boolean	Influence whether the remote file must always be replaced. If true, the remote file will be replaced when contents are different than the source. If false, the file will only be transferred if the destination does not exist. Choices: false true ← (default)
group string	Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown. When left unspecified, it uses the current group of the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership. Specifying a numeric group name (for example, “1000”) will be assumed to be a group ID (GID) and not a group name. To prevent confusion, avoid using purely numeric group names.
mode any	The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must give Ansible enough information to parse them correctly. For consistent results, quote octal numbers (for example, '644' or '1777') so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, 0755) works sometimes, but can fail in loops and some other circumstances. Giving Ansible a number without following either of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results. As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r). If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does not exist, the default umask on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created filesystem object. If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does exist, the mode of the existing filesystem object will be used. Specifying mode is the best way to ensure filesystem objects are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.
owner string	Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown. When left unspecified, it uses the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership. Specifying a numeric username (for example, “1000”) will be assumed to be a user ID (UID) and not a username. To prevent confusion, avoid using purely numeric usernames.
path aliases: dest path / required	The file to write to.
selevel string	The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.
serole string	The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context. When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.
setype string	The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context. When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.
seuser string	The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context. By default it uses the system policy, where applicable. When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
unsafe_writes boolean	Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem object. By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem objects, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted filesystem objects, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner. This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating filesystem objects when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn’t force Ansible to perform unsafe writes). IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption. Choices: false ← (default) true

Attributes

Attribute	Support	Description
check_mode	Support: full	Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target.
diff_mode	Support: none	Returns details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode.

See Also

See also

community.general.binary_file lookup plugin

Read binary file and return it Base64 encoded.

ansible.builtin.copy

Copy files to remote locations.

Examples

- name: Write binary file
  community.general.write_binary_file:
    path: /foo
    content: "{{ lookup('community.general.binary_file', '/bar') }}"
    mode: "0600"
    owner: root
    group: root
  become: true

- name: Write binary decrypted from SOPS
  community.general.write_binary_file:
    path: /etc/encrypted.bin
    content: "{{ lookup('community.sops.sops', 'encrypted.sops.bin', base64=true, rstrip=false) }}"
    mode: "0600"
    owner: root
    group: root
  become: true

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Description
backup_file string	Name of backup file created. Returned: changed and if backup=true Sample: "/path/to/file.txt.2015-02-12@22:09~"

Authors

• Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)

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