Files Operations¶

The files operations handles filesystem state, file uploads and template generation.

Facts used in these operations: files.Block, server.Date, files.Directory, files.File, files.FindFiles, files.FindInFile, files.Flags, files.Link, files.Md5File, files.Sha1File, files.Sha256File, server.Which.

`files.block`¶

Ensure content, surrounded by the appropriate markers, is present (or not) in the file.

files.block(
    path, content=None, present=True, line=None, backup=False, escape_regex_characters=False,
    try_prevent_shell_expansion=False, before=False, after=False, marker=None, begin=None,
    end=None,
)

path: target remote file
content: what should be present in the file (between markers).
present: whether the content should be present in the file
before: should the content be added before line if it doesn’t exist
after: should the content be added after line if it doesn’t exist
line: regex before or after which the content should be added if it doesn’t exist.
backup: whether to backup the file (see files.line). Default False.
escape_regex_characters: whether to escape regex characters from the matching line
try_prevent_shell_expansion: tries to prevent shell expanding by values like $
marker: the base string used to mark the text. Default is # {mark} PYINFRA BLOCK
begin: the value for {mark} in the marker before the content. Default is BEGIN
end: the value for {mark} in the marker after the content. Default is END

Content appended if line not found in the file: If content is not in the file but is required (present=True) and line is not found in the file, content (surrounded by markers) will be appended to the file. The file is created if necessary.
Content prepended or appended if line not specified: If content is not in the file but is required and line was not provided the content will either be prepended to the file (if both before and after are True) or appended to the file (if both are False).

Removal ignores content and line

Preventing shell expansion works by wrapping the content in ‘`’ before passing to awk. WARNING: This will break if the content contains raw single quotes.

Examples:

# add entry to /etc/host
files.block(
    name="add IP address for red server",
    path="/etc/hosts",
    content="10.0.0.1 mars-one",
    before=True,
    regex=".*localhost",
)

# have two entries in /etc/host
files.block(
    name="add IP address for red server",
    path="/etc/hosts",
    content="10.0.0.1 mars-one\n10.0.0.2 mars-two",
    before=True,
    regex=".*localhost",
)

# remove marked entry from /etc/hosts
files.block(
    name="remove all 10.* addresses from /etc/hosts",
    path="/etc/hosts",
    present=False
)

# add out of date warning to web page
files.block(
    name="add out of date warning to web page",
    path="/var/www/html/something.html",
    content= "<p>Warning: this page is out of date.</p>",
    regex=".*<body>.*",
    after=True
    marker="<!-- {mark} PYINFRA BLOCK -->",
)

# put complex alias into .zshrc
files.block(
    path="/home/user/.zshrc",
    content="eval $(thefuck -a)",
    try_prevent_shell_expansion=True,
    marker="## {mark} ALIASES ##"
)

`files.directory`¶

Add/remove/update directories.

files.directory(
    path, present=True, assume_present=False, user=None, group=None, mode=None,
    recursive=False, force=False, force_backup=True, force_backup_dir=None,
)

path: path of the remote folder
present: whether the folder should exist
assume_present: whether to assume the directory exists
user: user to own the folder
group: group to own the folder
mode: permissions of the folder
recursive: recursively apply user/group/mode
force: if the target exists and is not a file, move or remove it and continue
force_backup: set to False to remove any existing non-file when force=True
force_backup_dir: directory to move any backup to when force=True

Examples:

files.directory(
    name="Ensure the /tmp/dir_that_we_want_removed is removed",
    path="/tmp/dir_that_we_want_removed",
    present=False,
)

files.directory(
    name="Ensure /web exists",
    path="/web",
    user="myweb",
    group="myweb",
)

# Multiple directories
for dir in ["/netboot/tftp", "/netboot/nfs"]:
    files.directory(
        name="Ensure the directory `{}` exists".format(dir),
        path=dir,
    )

`files.download`¶

Download files from remote locations using curl or wget.

files.download(
    src, dest, user=None, group=None, mode=None, cache_time=None, force=False, sha256sum=None,
    sha1sum=None, md5sum=None, headers=None, insecure=False, proxy=None,
)

src: source URL of the file
dest: where to save the file
user: user to own the files
group: group to own the files
mode: permissions of the files
cache_time: if the file exists already, re-download after this time (in seconds)
force: always download the file, even if it already exists
sha256sum: sha256 hash to checksum the downloaded file against
sha1sum: sha1 hash to checksum the downloaded file against
md5sum: md5 hash to checksum the downloaded file against
headers: optional dictionary of headers to set for the HTTP request
insecure: disable SSL verification for the HTTP request
proxy: simple HTTP proxy through which we can download files, form http://<yourproxy>:<port>

Example:

files.download(
    name="Download the Docker repo file",
    src="https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo",
    dest="/etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo",
)

`files.file`¶

Add/remove/update files.

files.file(
    path, present=True, assume_present=False, user=None, group=None, mode=None, touch=False,
    create_remote_dir=True, force=False, force_backup=True, force_backup_dir=None,
)

path: name/path of the remote file
present: whether the file should exist
assume_present: whether to assume the file exists
user: user to own the files
group: group to own the files
mode: permissions of the files as an integer, eg: 755
touch: whether to touch the file
create_remote_dir: create the remote directory if it doesn’t exist
force: if the target exists and is not a file, move or remove it and continue
force_backup: set to False to remove any existing non-file when force=True
force_backup_dir: directory to move any backup to when force=True

create_remote_dir:: If the remote directory does not exist it will be created using the same user & group as passed to files.put. The mode will not be copied over, if this is required call files.directory separately.

Example:

# Note: The directory /tmp/secret will get created with the default umask.
files.file(
    name="Create /tmp/secret/file",
    path="/tmp/secret/file",
    mode="600",
    user="root",
    group="root",
    touch=True,
    create_remote_dir=True,
)

`files.flags`¶

Set/clear file flags.

files.flags(path, flags=None, present=True)

path: path of the remote folder
flags: a list of the file flags to be set or cleared
present: whether the flags should be set or cleared

Examples:

files.flags(
    name="Ensure ~/Library is visible in the GUI",
    path="~/Library",
    flags="hidden",
    present=False
)

files.directory(
    name="Ensure no one can change these files",
    path="/something/very/important",
    flags=["uchg", "schg"],
    present=True,
    _sudo=True
)

`files.get`¶

Stateless operation

This operation will always execute commands and is not idempotent.

Download a file from the remote system.

files.get(src, dest, add_deploy_dir=True, create_local_dir=False, force=False)

src: the remote filename to download
dest: the local filename to download the file to
add_deploy_dir: dest is relative to the deploy directory
create_local_dir: create the local directory if it doesn’t exist
force: always download the file, even if the local copy matches

Note:: This operation is not suitable for large files as it may involve copying the remote file before downloading it.

Example:

files.get(
    name="Download a file from a remote",
    src="/etc/centos-release",
    dest="/tmp/whocares",
)

`files.line`¶

Ensure lines in files using grep to locate and sed to replace.

files.line(
    path, line, present=True, replace=None, flags=None, backup=False,
    interpolate_variables=False, escape_regex_characters=False, assume_present=False,
    ensure_newline=False,
)

path: target remote file to edit
line: string or regex matching the target line
present: whether the line should be in the file
replace: text to replace entire matching lines when present=True
flags: list of flags to pass to sed when replacing/deleting
backup: whether to backup the file (see below)
interpolate_variables: whether to interpolate variables in replace
assume_present: whether to assume a matching line already exists in the file
escape_regex_characters: whether to escape regex characters from the matching line
ensure_newline: ensures that the appended line is on a new line

Regex line matching:: Unless line matches a line (starts with ^, ends $), pyinfra will wrap it such that it does, like: ^.*LINE.*$. This means we don’t swap parts of lines out. To change bits of lines, see files.replace.
Regex line escaping:: If matching special characters (eg a crontab line containing *), remember to escape it first using Python’s re.escape.
Backup:: If set to True, any editing of the file will place an old copy with the ISO date (taken from the machine running pyinfra) appended as the extension. If you pass a string value this will be used as the extension of the backed up file.
Append:: If line is not in the file but we want it (present set to True), then it will be append to the end of the file.
Ensure new line:: This will ensure that the line being appended is always on a seperate new line in case the file doesn’t end with a newline character.

Examples:

# prepare to do some maintenance
maintenance_line = "SYSTEM IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE"
files.line(
    name="Add the down-for-maintenance line in /etc/motd",
    path="/etc/motd",
    line=maintenance_line,
)

# Then, after the maintenance is done, remove the maintenance line
files.line(
    name="Remove the down-for-maintenance line in /etc/motd",
    path="/etc/motd",
    line=maintenance_line,
    replace="",
    present=False,
)

# example where there is '*' in the line
files.line(
    name="Ensure /netboot/nfs is in /etc/exports",
    path="/etc/exports",
    line=r"/netboot/nfs .*",
    replace="/netboot/nfs *(ro,sync,no_wdelay,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,"
    "insecure,no_subtree_check)",
)

files.line(
    name="Ensure myweb can run /usr/bin/python3 without password",
    path="/etc/sudoers",
    line=r"myweb .*",
    replace="myweb ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/python3",
)

# example when there are double quotes (")
line = 'QUOTAUSER=""'
files.line(
    name="Example with double quotes (")",
    path="/etc/adduser.conf",
    line="^{}$".format(line),
    replace=line,
)

`files.link`¶

Add/remove/update links.

files.link(
    path, target=None, present=True, assume_present=False, user=None, group=None,
    symbolic=True, create_remote_dir=True, force=False, force_backup=True,
    force_backup_dir=None,
)

path: the name of the link
target: the file/directory the link points to
present: whether the link should exist
assume_present: whether to assume the link exists
user: user to own the link
group: group to own the link
symbolic: whether to make a symbolic link (vs hard link)
create_remote_dir: create the remote directory if it doesn’t exist
force: if the target exists and is not a file, move or remove it and continue
force_backup: set to False to remove any existing non-file when force=True
force_backup_dir: directory to move any backup to when force=True

create_remote_dir:: If the remote directory does not exist it will be created using the same user & group as passed to files.put. The mode will not be copied over, if this is required call files.directory separately.
Source changes:: If the link exists and points to a different target, pyinfra will remove it and recreate a new one pointing to then new target.

Examples:

files.link(
    name="Create link /etc/issue2 that points to /etc/issue",
    path="/etc/issue2",
    target="/etc/issue",
)


# Complex example demonstrating the assume_present option
from pyinfra.operations import apt, files

install_nginx = apt.packages(
    name="Install nginx",
    packages=["nginx"],
)

files.link(
    name="Remove default nginx site",
    path="/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default",
    present=False,
    assume_present=install_nginx.changed,
)

`files.put`¶

Upload a local file, or file-like object, to the remote system.

files.put(
    src, dest, user=None, group=None, mode=None, add_deploy_dir=True, create_remote_dir=True,
    force=False, assume_exists=False,
)

src: filename or IO-like object to upload
dest: remote filename to upload to
user: user to own the files
group: group to own the files
mode: permissions of the files, use True to copy the local file
add_deploy_dir: src is relative to the deploy directory
create_remote_dir: create the remote directory if it doesn’t exist
force: always upload the file, even if the remote copy matches
assume_exists: whether to assume the local file exists

dest:: If this is a directory that already exists on the remote side, the local file will be uploaded to that directory with the same filename.
mode:: When set to True the permissions of the local file are applied to the remote file after the upload is complete.
create_remote_dir:: If the remote directory does not exist it will be created using the same user & group as passed to files.put. The mode will not be copied over, if this is required call files.directory separately.
Note:: This operation is not suitable for large files as it may involve copying the file before uploading it.

Examples:

files.put(
    name="Update the message of the day file",
    src="files/motd",
    dest="/etc/motd",
    mode="644",
)

files.put(
    name="Upload a StringIO object",
    src=StringIO("file contents"),
    dest="/etc/motd",
)

`files.replace`¶

Replace contents of a file using sed.

files.replace(
    path, text=None, replace=None, flags=None, backup=False, interpolate_variables=False,
    match=None,
)

path: target remote file to edit
text: text/regex to match against
replace: text to replace with
flags: list of flags to pass to sed
backup: whether to backup the file (see below)
interpolate_variables: whether to interpolate variables in replace

Backup:: If set to True, any editing of the file will place an old copy with the ISO date (taken from the machine running pyinfra) appended as the extension. If you pass a string value this will be used as the extension of the backed up file.

Example:

files.replace(
    name="Change part of a line in a file",
    path="/etc/motd",
    text="verboten",
    replace="forbidden",
)

`files.rsync`¶

Stateless operation

This operation will always execute commands and is not idempotent.

Use rsync to sync a local directory to the remote system. This operation will actually call the rsync binary on your system.

files.rsync(src, dest, flags=['-ax', '--delete'])

Important

The files.rsync operation is in alpha, and only supported using SSH or @local connectors. When using the SSH connector, rsync will automatically use the StrictHostKeyChecking setting, config and known_hosts file (when specified).

Caution

When using SSH, the files.rsync operation only supports the sudo and sudo_user global arguments.

`files.sync`¶

Syncs a local directory with a remote one, with delete support. Note that delete will remove extra files on the remote side, but not extra directories.

files.sync(
    src, dest, user=None, group=None, mode=None, dir_mode=None, delete=False, exclude=None,
    exclude_dir=None, add_deploy_dir=True,
)

src: local directory to sync
dest: remote directory to sync to
user: user to own the files and directories
group: group to own the files and directories
mode: permissions of the files
dir_mode: permissions of the directories
delete: delete remote files not present locally
exclude: string or list/tuple of strings to match & exclude files (eg *.pyc)
exclude_dir: string or list/tuple of strings to match & exclude directories (eg node_modules)
add_deploy_dir: interpret src as relative to deploy directory instead of current directory

Example:

# Sync local files/tempdir to remote /tmp/tempdir
files.sync(
    name="Sync a local directory with remote",
    src="files/tempdir",
    dest="/tmp/tempdir",
)

Note: exclude and exclude_dir use fnmatch behind the scenes to do the filtering.

exclude matches against the filename.
exclude_dir matches against the path of the directory, relative to src. Since fnmatch does not treat path separators (/ or \) as special characters, excluding all directories matching a given name, however deep under src they are, can be done for example with exclude_dir=["__pycache__", "*/__pycache__"]

`files.template`¶

Generate a template using jinja2 and write it to the remote system.

files.template(src, dest, user=None, group=None, mode=None, create_remote_dir=True)

src: template filename or IO-like object
dest: remote filename
user: user to own the files
group: group to own the files
mode: permissions of the files
create_remote_dir: create the remote directory if it doesn’t exist

create_remote_dir:

If the remote directory does not exist it will be created using the same user & group as passed to files.put. The mode will not be copied over, if this is required call files.directory separately.

Notes:

Common convention is to store templates in a “templates” directory and have a filename suffix with ‘.j2’ (for jinja2).

For information on the template syntax, see the jinja2 docs.

Examples:

files.template(
    name="Create a templated file",
    src="templates/somefile.conf.j2",
    dest="/etc/somefile.conf",
)

files.template(
    name="Create service file",
    src="templates/myweb.service.j2",
    dest="/etc/systemd/system/myweb.service",
    mode="755",
    user="root",
    group="root",
)

# Example showing how to pass python variable to template file. You can also
# use dicts and lists. The .j2 file can use `{{ foo_variable }}` to be interpolated.
foo_variable = 'This is some foo variable contents'
foo_dict = {
    "str1": "This is string 1",
    "str2": "This is string 2"
}
foo_list = [
    "entry 1",
    "entry 2"
]

template = StringIO("""
name: "{{ foo_variable }}"
dict_contents:
    str1: "{{ foo_dict.str1 }}"
    str2: "{{ foo_dict.str2 }}"
list_contents:
{% for entry in foo_list %}
    - "{{ entry }}"
{% endfor %}
""")

files.template(
    name="Create a templated file",
    src=template,
    dest="/tmp/foo.yml",
    foo_variable=foo_variable,
    foo_dict=foo_dict,
    foo_list=foo_list
)

Files Operations¶

files.block¶

files.directory¶

files.download¶

files.file¶

files.flags¶

files.get¶

files.line¶

files.link¶

files.put¶

files.replace¶

files.rsync¶

files.sync¶

files.template¶

`files.block`¶

`files.directory`¶

`files.download`¶

`files.file`¶

`files.flags`¶

`files.get`¶

`files.line`¶

`files.link`¶

`files.put`¶

`files.replace`¶

`files.rsync`¶

`files.sync`¶

`files.template`¶