community.general.interfaces_file module – Tweak settings in /etc/network/interfaces files

Note

This module is part of the community.general collection (version 10.7.5).

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.

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

Synopsis

  • Manage (add, remove, change) individual interface options in an interfaces-style file without having to manage the file as a whole with, say, ansible.builtin.template or ansible.builtin.assemble. Interface has to be presented in a file.

  • Read information about interfaces from interfaces-styled files.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

address_family

string

Address family of the interface, useful if same interface name is used for both inet and inet6.

attributes

aliases: attr

string

The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.

To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system.

This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.

The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

backup

boolean

Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

dest

path

Path to the interfaces file.

Default: "/etc/network/interfaces"

group

string

Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current group of the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

iface

string

Name of the interface, required for value changes or option remove.

mode

any

The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.

For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must give Ansible enough information to parse them correctly. For consistent results, quote octal numbers (for example, '644' or '1777') so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, 0755) works sometimes, but can fail in loops and some other circumstances.

Giving Ansible a number without following either of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.

As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).

If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does not exist, the default umask on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created filesystem object.

If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does exist, the mode of the existing filesystem object will be used.

Specifying mode is the best way to ensure filesystem objects are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.

option

string

Name of the option, required for value changes or option remove.

owner

string

Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

Specifying a numeric username will be assumed to be a user ID and not a username. Avoid numeric usernames to avoid this confusion.

selevel

string

The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range.

When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.

serole

string

The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.

setype

string

The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.

seuser

string

The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

By default it uses the system policy, where applicable.

When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.

state

string

If set to absent the option or section is removed if present instead of created.

Choices:

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "absent"

unsafe_writes

boolean

Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem object.

By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem objects, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted filesystem objects, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.

This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating filesystem objects when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn’t force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).

IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

value

string

If option is not presented for the iface and state is present, then option is added. If option already exists and is not pre-up, up, post-up or down, its value is updated. pre-up, up, post-up and down options cannot be updated, only adding new options, removing existing ones or cleaning the whole option set are supported.

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

check_mode

Support: full

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

diff_mode

Support: none

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

Notes

Note

  • If option is defined multiple times last one is updated but all others are deleted in case of an state=absent.

Examples

- name: Set eth1 mtu configuration value to 8000
  community.general.interfaces_file:
    dest: /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth1.cfg
    iface: eth1
    option: mtu
    value: 8000
    backup: true
    state: present
  register: eth1_cfg

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

dest

string

Destination file/path.

Returned: success

Sample: "/etc/network/interfaces"

ifaces

dictionary

Interfaces dictionary.

Returned: success

ifaces

dictionary

Interface dictionary.

Returned: success

eth0

dictionary

Name of the interface.

Returned: success

address_family

string

Interface address family.

Returned: success

Sample: "inet"

down

list / elements=string

List of down scripts.

Returned: success

Sample: ["route del -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1", "route del -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2"]

method

string

Interface method.

Returned: success

Sample: "manual"

mtu

string

Other options, all values returned as strings.

Returned: success

Sample: "1500"

post-up

list / elements=string

List of post-up scripts.

Returned: success

Sample: ["route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1", "route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2"]

pre-up

list / elements=string

List of pre-up scripts.

Returned: success

Sample: ["route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1", "route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2"]

up

list / elements=string

List of up scripts.

Returned: success

Sample: ["route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1", "route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2"]

Authors

  • Roman Belyakovsky (@hryamzik)