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# archive – Creates a compressed archive of one or more files or trees

- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- See Also
- Examples
- Return Values
- Status

## Synopsis

- Packs an archive.
- It is the opposite of unarchive.
- By default, it assumes the compression source exists on the target.
- It will not copy the source file from the local system to the target before archiving.
- Source files can be deleted after archival by specifying remove=True.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
attributes string |  | The attributes the resulting file or directory 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. aliases: attr
dest path |  | The file name of the destination archive. This is required when `path` refers to multiple files by either specifying a glob, a directory or multiple paths in a list.
exclude_path list added in 2.4 |  | Remote absolute path, glob, or list of paths or globs for the file or files to exclude from the archive.
force_archive boolean added in 2.8 | Choices: no ← yes | Allow you to force the module to treat this as an archive even if only a single file is specified. By default behaviour is maintained. i.e A when a single file is specified it is compressed only (not archived).
format string | Choices: bz2 gz ← tar xz zip | The type of compression to use. Support for xz was added in Ansible 2.5.
group string |  | Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
mode string |  | The permissions the resulting file or directory should have. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like `0644` or `01777`) or quote it (like `'644'` or `'1777'`) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Giving Ansible a number without following one 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`). As of Ansible 2.6, the mode may also be the special string `preserve`. When set to `preserve` the file will be given the same permissions as the source file.
owner string |  | Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
path list / required |  | Remote absolute path, glob, or list of paths or globs for the file or files to compress or archive.
remove boolean | Choices: no ← yes | Remove any added source files and trees after adding to archive.
selevel string | Default: "s0" | The level part of the SELinux file 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 file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `role` portion of the policy if available.
setype string |  | The type part of the SELinux file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `type` portion of the policy if available.
seuser string |  | The user part of the SELinux file 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 | Choices: no ← yes | Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target file. By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, 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 files 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.

## Notes

Note

- Requires tarfile, zipfile, gzip and bzip2 packages on target host.
- Requires lzma or backports.lzma if using xz format.
- Can produce gzip, bzip2, lzma and zip compressed files or archives.

## See Also

See also

unarchive – Unpacks an archive after (optionally) copying it from the local machine
  The official documentation on the unarchive module.

## Examples

    - name: Compress directory /path/to/foo/ into /path/to/foo.tgz
      archive:
        path: /path/to/foo
        dest: /path/to/foo.tgz

    - name: Compress regular file /path/to/foo into /path/to/foo.gz and remove it
      archive:
        path: /path/to/foo
        remove: yes

    - name: Create a zip archive of /path/to/foo
      archive:
        path: /path/to/foo
        format: zip

    - name: Create a bz2 archive of multiple files, rooted at /path
      archive:
        path:
        - /path/to/foo
        - /path/wong/foo
        dest: /path/file.tar.bz2
        format: bz2

    - name: Create a bz2 archive of a globbed path, while excluding specific dirnames
      archive:
        path:
        - /path/to/foo/*
        dest: /path/file.tar.bz2
        exclude_path:
        - /path/to/foo/bar
        - /path/to/foo/baz
        format: bz2

    - name: Create a bz2 archive of a globbed path, while excluding a glob of dirnames
      archive:
        path:
        - /path/to/foo/*
        dest: /path/file.tar.bz2
        exclude_path:
        - /path/to/foo/ba*
        format: bz2

    - name: Use gzip to compress a single archive (i.e don't archive it first with tar)
      archive:
        path: /path/to/foo/single.file
        dest: /path/file.gz
        format: gz

    - name: Create a tar.gz archive of a single file.
      archive:
        path: /path/to/foo/single.file
        dest: /path/file.tar.gz
        format: gz
        force_archive: true

## Return Values

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

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---
archived list | success | Any files that were compressed or added to the archive.
arcroot string | always | The archive root.
expanded_exclude_paths list | always | The list of matching exclude paths from the exclude_path argument.
expanded_paths list | always | The list of matching paths from paths argument.
missing list | success | Any files that were missing from the source.
state string | always | The current state of the archived file. If 'absent', then no source files were found and the archive does not exist. If 'compress', then the file source file is in the compressed state. If 'archive', then the source file or paths are currently archived. If 'incomplete', then an archive was created, but not all source paths were found.

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Ben Doherty (@bendoh)

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