stat - Retrieve file or file system status¶

# Obtain the stats of /etc/foo.conf, and check that the file still belongs
# to 'root'. Fail otherwise.
- stat:
    path: /etc/foo.conf
  register: st
- fail:
    msg: "Whoops! file ownership has changed"
  when: st.stat.pw_name != 'root'

# Determine if a path exists and is a symlink. Note that if the path does
# not exist, and we test sym.stat.islnk, it will fail with an error. So
# therefore, we must test whether it is defined.
# Run this to understand the structure, the skipped ones do not pass the
# check performed by 'when'
- stat:
    path: /path/to/something
  register: sym

- debug:
    msg: "islnk isn't defined (path doesn't exist)"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is not defined

- debug:
    msg: "islnk is defined (path must exist)"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined

- debug:
    msg: "Path exists and is a symlink"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined and sym.stat.islnk

- debug:
    msg: "Path exists and isn't a symlink"
  when: sym.stat.islnk is defined and sym.stat.islnk == False


# Determine if a path exists and is a directory.  Note that we need to test
# both that p.stat.isdir actually exists, and also that it's set to true.
- stat:
    path: /path/to/something
  register: p
- debug:
    msg: "Path exists and is a directory"
  when: p.stat.isdir is defined and p.stat.isdir

# Don't do md5 checksum
- stat:
    path: /path/to/myhugefile
    get_md5: no

# Use sha256 to calculate checksum
- stat:
    path: /path/to/something
    checksum_algorithm: sha256