W3cubDocs

/Ansible

community.general.sefcontext module – Manages SELinux file context mapping definitions

Note

This module is part of the community.general collection (version 10.7.3).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.general. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.general.sefcontext.

Synopsis

  • Manages SELinux file context mapping definitions.
  • Similar to the semanage fcontext command.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • libselinux-python
  • policycoreutils-python

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

ftype

string

The file type that should have SELinux contexts applied.

The following file type options are available:

a for all files,

b for block devices,

c for character devices,

d for directories,

f for regular files,

l for symbolic links,

p for named pipes,

s for socket files.

Choices:

  • "a" ← (default)
  • "b"
  • "c"
  • "d"
  • "f"
  • "l"
  • "p"
  • "s"

ignore_selinux_state

boolean

Useful for scenarios (chrooted environment) that you cannot get the real SELinux state.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)
  • true

reload

boolean

Reload SELinux policy after commit.

Note that this does not apply SELinux file contexts to existing files.

Choices:

  • false
  • true ← (default)

selevel

aliases: serange

string

SELinux range for the specified target.

Defaults to s0 for new file contexts and to existing value when modifying file contexts.

setype

string

SELinux type for the specified target.

seuser

string

SELinux user for the specified target.

Defaults to system_u for new file contexts and to existing value when modifying file contexts.

state

string

Whether the SELinux file context must be absent or present.

Specifying absent without either setype or substitute deletes both SELinux type or path substitution mappings that match target.

Choices:

  • "absent"
  • "present" ← (default)

substitute

aliases: equal

string

added in community.general 6.4.0

Path to use to substitute file context(s) for the specified target. The context labeling for the target subtree is made equivalent to this path.

This is also referred to as SELinux file context equivalence and it implements the equal functionality of the SELinux management tools.

target

aliases: path

string / required

Target path (expression).

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

check_mode

Support: full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target.

diff_mode

Support: full

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode.

platform

Platform: linux

Target OS/families that can be operated against.

Notes

Note

  • The changes are persistent across reboots.
  • setype and substitute are mutually exclusive.
  • If state=present then one of setype or substitute is mandatory.
  • The community.general.sefcontext module does not modify existing files to the new SELinux context(s), so it is advisable to first create the SELinux file contexts before creating files, or run restorecon manually for the existing files that require the new SELinux file contexts.
  • Not applying SELinux fcontexts to existing files is a deliberate decision as it would be unclear what reported changes would entail to, and there is no guarantee that applying SELinux fcontext does not pick up other unrelated prior changes.

Examples

- name: Allow apache to modify files in /srv/git_repos
  community.general.sefcontext:
    target: '/srv/git_repos(/.*)?'
    setype: httpd_sys_rw_content_t
    state: present

- name: Substitute file contexts for path /srv/containers with /var/lib/containers
  community.general.sefcontext:
    target: /srv/containers
    substitute: /var/lib/containers
    state: present

- name: Delete file context path substitution for /srv/containers
  community.general.sefcontext:
    target: /srv/containers
    substitute: /var/lib/containers
    state: absent

- name: Delete any file context mappings for path /srv/git
  community.general.sefcontext:
    target: /srv/git
    state: absent

- name: Apply new SELinux file context to filesystem
  ansible.builtin.command: restorecon -irv /srv/git_repos

Authors

  • Dag Wieers (@dagwieers)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2025 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/general/sefcontext_module.html