backup_local now only tries to back up exising files, returns '' otherwise

lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py

@@ -1297,6 +1297,9 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
 
     def backup_local(self, fn):
         '''make a date-marked backup of the specified file, return True or False on success or failure'''
+
+        backupdest = ''
+        if os.path.exists(fn):
             # backups named basename-YYYY-MM-DD@HH:MM:SS~
             ext = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d@%H:%M:%S~", time.localtime(time.time()))
             backupdest = '%s.%s' % (fn, ext)
@@ -1305,6 +1308,7 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
                 shutil.copy2(fn, backupdest)
             except (shutil.Error, IOError), e:
                 self.fail_json(msg='Could not make backup of %s to %s: %s' % (fn, backupdest, e))
+
         return backupdest
 
     def cleanup(self, tmpfile):