Automating File Extension Validation with Ansible

How to use the regular expression within an Ansible Playbook.

Introduction

In the age of automation, managing file integrity across diverse environments is crucial for ensuring data consistency and security. Ansible, a powerful IT automation tool, offers an efficient way to automate tasks and ensure that files meet specified criteria, such as having correct file extensions. This article presents a detailed guide on using Ansible to validate file extensions within a system.

Understanding the Playbook Structure

The given Ansible playbook is designed to validate file extensions to ensure that each file ends with specified formats (e.g., .csv or .txt). Here’s a breakdown of the playbook's components:

---
- name: Validate file extensions
  hosts: all
  vars:
    my_dicts: [
      { file_name: 'data1.csv' },
      { file_name: 'report.txt' },
      { file_name: 'summary.json' }
    ]

  tasks:
    - name: Check file extensions
      assert:
        that: item is match('.*\.(csv|txt)$')
        fail_msg: "File with invalid extension detected: {{ item }}"
        success_msg: "Valid file extension…