W3cubDocs

/Ansible

blockinfile - Insert/update/remove a text block surrounded by marker lines.

New in version 2.0.

Synopsis

This module will insert/update/remove a block of multi-line text surrounded by customizable marker lines.

Options

parameter required default choices comments
backup
 no no
  • yes
  • no
Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
block
 no
The text to insert inside the marker lines. If it's missing or an empty string, the block will be removed as if state were specified to absent.
aliases: content
create
 no no
  • yes
  • no
Create a new file if it doesn't exist.
dest
 yes
The file to modify.
aliases: name, destfile
follow
(added in 2.1)
 no no
  • yes
  • no
This flag indicates that filesystem links, if they exist, should be followed.
group
 no
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
insertafter
 no EOF
  • EOF
  • *regex*
If specified, the block will be inserted after the last match of specified regular expression. A special value is available; EOF for inserting the block at the end of the file. If specified regular expresion has no matches, EOF will be used instead.
insertbefore
 no None
  • BOF
  • *regex*
If specified, the block will be inserted before the last match of specified regular expression. A special value is available; BOF for inserting the block at the beginning of the file. If specified regular expresion has no matches, the block will be inserted at the end of the file.
marker
 no # {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
The marker line template. "{mark}" will be replaced with "BEGIN" or "END".
mode
 no
Mode the file or directory should be. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers (like 0644). Leaving off the leading zero will likely have unexpected results. As of version 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
owner
 no
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
selevel
 no s0
Level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. _default feature works as for seuser.
serole
 no
Role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
setype
 no
Type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
seuser
 no
User part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
state
 no present
  • present
  • absent
Whether the block should be there or not.
unsafe_writes
(added in 2.2)
 no
Normally this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example are docker mounted files, they cannot be updated atomically and can only be done in an unsafe manner.
This boolean option allows ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files for those cases in which you do not have any other choice. Be aware that this is subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.
validate
 no None
The validation command to run before copying into place. The path to the file to validate is passed in via '%s' which must be present as in the example below. The command is passed securely so shell features like expansion and pipes won't work.

Examples

- name: insert/update "Match User" configuation block in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  blockinfile:
    dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    block: |
      Match User ansible-agent
      PasswordAuthentication no

- name: insert/update eth0 configuration stanza in /etc/network/interfaces
        (it might be better to copy files into /etc/network/interfaces.d/)
  blockinfile:
    dest: /etc/network/interfaces
    block: |
      iface eth0 inet static
          address 192.0.2.23
          netmask 255.255.255.0

- name: insert/update HTML surrounded by custom markers after <body> line
  blockinfile:
    dest: /var/www/html/index.html
    marker: "<!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"
    insertafter: "<body>"
    content: |
      <h1>Welcome to {{ansible_hostname}}</h1>
      <p>Last updated on {{ansible_date_time.iso8601}}</p>

- name: remove HTML as well as surrounding markers
  blockinfile:
    dest: /var/www/html/index.html
    marker: "<!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"
    content: ""

- name: Add mappings to /etc/hosts
  blockinfile:
    dest: /etc/hosts
    block: |
      {{item.ip}} {{item.name}}
    marker: "# {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK {{item.name}}"
  with_items:
      - { name: host1, ip: 10.10.1.10 }
      - { name: host2, ip: 10.10.1.11 }
      - { name: host3, ip: 10.10.1.12 }

Notes

Note

This module supports check mode.

Note

When using ‘with_*’ loops be aware that if you do not set a unique mark the block will be overwritten on each iteration.

This is an Extras Module

For more information on what this means please read Extras Modules

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, developing_test_pr and Developing Modules.

© 2012–2016 Michael DeHaan
© 2016 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/blockinfile_module.html