file: Recover from unexpectedly disappearing files (#42281)

lib/ansible/modules/files/file.py

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ author:
 options:
   path:
     description:
-      - 'path to the file being managed.  Aliases: I(dest), I(name)'
+      - Path to the file being managed.
     required: true
     aliases: [ dest, name ]
   state:
@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@ def get_state(path):
     ''' Find out current state '''
 
     b_path = to_bytes(path, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
+    try:
         if os.path.lexists(b_path):
             if os.path.islink(b_path):
                 return 'link'
@@ -224,6 +225,11 @@ def get_state(path):
             return 'file'
 
         return 'absent'
+    except OSError as e:
+        if e.errno == errno.ENOENT:  # It may already have been removed
+            return 'absent'
+        else:
+            raise
 
 
 # This should be moved into the common file utilities