ansible.builtin.get_url module – Downloads files from HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP to node

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name get_url even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.get_url for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis

• Downloads files from HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP to the remote server. The remote server must have direct access to the remote resource.

• By default, if an environment variable <protocol>_proxy is set on the target host, requests will be sent through that proxy. This behaviour can be overridden by setting a variable for this task (see setting the environment), or by using the use_proxy option.

• HTTP redirects can redirect from HTTP to HTTPS so you should be sure that your proxy environment for both protocols is correct.

• From Ansible 2.4 when run with --check, it will do a HEAD request to validate the URL but will not download the entire file or verify it against hashes and will report incorrect changed status.

• For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_get_url module instead.

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
checksum string	If a checksum is passed to this parameter, the digest of the destination file will be calculated after it is downloaded to ensure its integrity and verify that the transfer completed successfully. Format: <algorithm>:<checksum|url>, for example checksum="sha256:D98291AC[...]B6DC7B97", C(checksum="sha256:http://example.com/path/sha256sum.txt". If you worry about portability, only the sha1 algorithm is available on all platforms and python versions. The Python hashlib module is responsible for providing the available algorithms. The choices vary based on Python version and OpenSSL version. On systems running in FIPS compliant mode, the md5 algorithm may be unavailable. Additionally, if a checksum is passed to this parameter, and the file exist under the dest location, the destination_checksum would be calculated, and if checksum equals destination_checksum, the file download would be skipped (unless force=true). If the checksum does not equal destination_checksum, the destination file is deleted. If the checksum URL requires username and password, url_username and url_password are used to download the checksum file. Default: ""
ciphers list / elements=string added in ansible-core 2.14	SSL/TLS Ciphers to use for the request. When a list is provided, all ciphers are joined in order with :. See the OpenSSL Cipher List Format for more details. The available ciphers is dependent on the Python and OpenSSL/LibreSSL versions.
client_cert path	PEM formatted certificate chain file to be used for SSL client authentication. This file can also include the key as well, and if the key is included, client_key is not required.
client_key path	PEM formatted file that contains your private key to be used for SSL client authentication. If client_cert contains both the certificate and key, this option is not required.
decompress boolean added in ansible-core 2.14	Whether to attempt to decompress gzip content-encoded responses. Choices: false true ← (default)
dest path / required	Absolute path of where to download the file to. If dest is a directory, either the server provided filename or, if none provided, the base name of the URL on the remote server will be used. If a directory, force has no effect. If dest is a directory, the file will always be downloaded (regardless of the force and checksum option), but replaced only if the contents changed.
force boolean	If true and dest is not a directory, will download the file every time and replace the file if the contents change. If false, the file will only be downloaded if the destination does not exist. Generally should be true only for small local files. Prior to 0.6, this module behaved as if true was the default. Choices: false ← (default) true
force_basic_auth boolean	Force the sending of the Basic authentication header upon initial request. httplib2, the library used by the uri module only sends authentication information when a webservice responds to an initial request with a 401 status. Since some basic auth services do not properly send a 401, logins will fail. Choices: false ← (default) true
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.
headers dictionary	Add custom HTTP headers to a request in hash/dict format. The hash/dict format was added in Ansible 2.6. Previous versions used a "key:value,key:value" string format. The "key:value,key:value" string format is deprecated and has been removed in version 2.10.
http_agent string	Header to identify as, generally appears in web server logs. Default: "ansible-httpget"
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 will be assumed to be a user ID and not a username. Avoid numeric usernames to avoid this confusion.
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.
timeout integer	Timeout in seconds for URL request. Default: 10
tmp_dest path	Absolute path of where temporary file is downloaded to. When run on Ansible 2.5 or greater, path defaults to ansible’s remote_tmp setting. When run on Ansible prior to 2.5, it defaults to TMPDIR, TEMP or TMP env variables or a platform specific value. https://docs.python.org/3/library/tempfile.html#tempfile.tempdir.
unredirected_headers list / elements=string added in ansible-core 2.12	A list of header names that will not be sent on subsequent redirected requests. This list is case insensitive. By default all headers will be redirected. In some cases it may be beneficial to list headers such as Authorization here to avoid potential credential exposure. Default: []
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
url string / required	HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP URL in the form (http|https|ftp://[user[:pass]]@host.domain[:port]/path).
url_password aliases: password string	The password for use in HTTP basic authentication. If the url_username parameter is not specified, the url_password parameter will not be used. Since version 2.8 you can also use the password alias for this option.
url_username aliases: username string	The username for use in HTTP basic authentication. This parameter can be used without url_password for sites that allow empty passwords. Since version 2.8 you can also use the username alias for this option.
use_gssapi boolean added in ansible-core 2.11	Use GSSAPI to perform the authentication, typically this is for Kerberos or Kerberos through Negotiate authentication. Requires the Python library gssapi to be installed. Credentials for GSSAPI can be specified with url_username/url_password or with the GSSAPI env var KRB5CCNAME that specified a custom Kerberos credential cache. NTLM authentication is not supported even if the GSSAPI mech for NTLM has been installed. Choices: false ← (default) true
use_netrc boolean added in ansible-core 2.14	Determining whether to use credentials from ~/.netrc file. By default .netrc is used with Basic authentication headers. When false, .netrc credentials are ignored. Choices: false true ← (default)
use_proxy boolean	if false, it will not use a proxy, even if one is defined in an environment variable on the target hosts. Choices: false true ← (default)
validate_certs boolean	If false, SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only be used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates. Choices: false true ← (default)

Attributes

Attribute	Support	Description
check_mode	Support: partial the changed status will reflect comparison to an empty source file	Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.
diff_mode	Support: none	Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode
platform	Platform: posix	Target OS/families that can be operated against

Notes

Note

• For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_get_url module instead.

See Also

See also

ansible.builtin.uri

Interacts with webservices.

ansible.windows.win_get_url

The official documentation on the ansible.windows.win_get_url module.

Examples

- name: Download foo.conf
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    mode: '0440'

- name: Download file and force basic auth
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    force_basic_auth: yes

- name: Download file with custom HTTP headers
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    headers:
      key1: one
      key2: two

- name: Download file with check (sha256)
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: sha256:b5bb9d8014a0f9b1d61e21e796d78dccdf1352f23cd32812f4850b878ae4944c

- name: Download file with check (md5)
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: md5:66dffb5228a211e61d6d7ef4a86f5758

- name: Download file with checksum url (sha256)
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    checksum: sha256:http://example.com/path/sha256sum.txt

- name: Download file from a file path
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: file:///tmp/a_file.txt
    dest: /tmp/afilecopy.txt

- name: < Fetch file that requires authentication.
        username/password only available since 2.8, in older versions you need to use url_username/url_password
  ansible.builtin.get_url:
    url: http://example.com/path/file.conf
    dest: /etc/foo.conf
    username: bar
    password: '{{ mysecret }}'

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 after download Returned: changed and if backup=yes Sample: "/path/to/file.txt.2015-02-12@22:09~"
checksum_dest string	sha1 checksum of the file after copy Returned: success Sample: "6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827"
checksum_src string	sha1 checksum of the file Returned: success Sample: "6e642bb8dd5c2e027bf21dd923337cbb4214f827"
dest string	destination file/path Returned: success Sample: "/path/to/file.txt"
elapsed integer	The number of seconds that elapsed while performing the download Returned: always Sample: 23
gid integer	group id of the file Returned: success Sample: 100
group string	group of the file Returned: success Sample: "httpd"
md5sum string	md5 checksum of the file after download Returned: when supported Sample: "2a5aeecc61dc98c4d780b14b330e3282"
mode string	permissions of the target Returned: success Sample: "0644"
msg string	the HTTP message from the request Returned: always Sample: "OK (unknown bytes)"
owner string	owner of the file Returned: success Sample: "httpd"
secontext string	the SELinux security context of the file Returned: success Sample: "unconfined_u:object_r:user_tmp_t:s0"
size integer	size of the target Returned: success Sample: 1220
src string	source file used after download Returned: always Sample: "/tmp/tmpAdFLdV"
state string	state of the target Returned: success Sample: "file"
status_code integer	the HTTP status code from the request Returned: always Sample: 200
uid integer	owner id of the file, after execution Returned: success Sample: 100
url string	the actual URL used for the request Returned: always Sample: "https://www.ansible.com/"

Authors

• Jan-Piet Mens (@jpmens)

Collection links

• Issue Tracker
• Repository (Sources)
• Communication