Ansible troubleshooting — Error 202: Risky Octal Permissions

How to Solve the Ansible Error 202: Risky Octal Permissions

Introduction

Ansible, a powerful automation tool, enables you to manage configurations, deploy software, and automate various tasks in a structured and organized manner. However, to harness the full potential of Ansible, it’s essential to follow best practices and avoid potential pitfalls. In this article, we’ll explore Ansible Error 202, “risky-octal,” which focuses on the use of octal file permissions in your Ansible playbooks. We’ll discuss why using integers or octal values in YAML can lead to unexpected behavior and how to ensure that your file permissions are defined safely and predictably.

The Problem: Risky Octal File Permissions

Ansible Error 202, “risky-octal,” is designed to prevent the use of octal file permissions in a non-standard form, which can result in unpredictable outcomes. Octal file permissions are typically written with a leading zero (e.g., 0644). When you omit the leading zero and use an integer (e.g., 644), the YAML parser interprets the value differently, leading to unexpected results.

Problematic Code Example:

---
- name: Example playbook
  hosts…