An example with Ansible to manage files in a directory; unmanaged files must be removed

clumsy.yml

---

- hosts: localhost
  connection: local

  vars:
      conf_d: results/conf.d
      put_files:
          - a.conf
          - b.conf
          
  tasks:
      - name: Put files in conf.d/
        template:
            src: "templates/{{ item }}.j2"
            dest: "{{ conf_d}}/{{ item }}"
        with_items: put_files
  
      - name: Make list of all files
        shell: "ls {{ conf_d }}"
        register: all_files

      - name: Remove extra files
        file:
            path: "results/conf.d/{{ item }}"
            state: absent
        with_items: all_files.stdout_lines | difference(put_files)

Makefile

init:
	mkdir -p results/conf.d/
	mkdir -p templates
	touch templates/{a,b}.conf.j2
	touch results/conf.d/unwanted_file.conf
	touch results/conf.d/break_my_config.conf

run:
	ansible-playbook -i localhost, clumsy.yml