ansible.builtin.blockinfile module – Insert/update/remove a text block surrounded by marker lines
Note
This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible
installations. In most cases, you can use the short
module name
blockinfile even without specifying the collections keyword.
However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.blockinfile for easy linking to the
module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have
the same module name.
Synopsis
This module will insert/update/remove a block of multi-line text surrounded by customizable marker lines.
Parameters
Parameter |
Comments |
|---|---|
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 |
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Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly. Choices:
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The text to insert inside the marker lines. If it is missing or an empty string, the block will be removed as if Default: |
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Create a new file if it does not exist. Choices:
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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. |
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If specified and no begin/ending A special value is available; If specified regular expression has no matches, The presence of the multiline flag (?m) in the regular expression controls whether the match is done line by line or with multiple lines. This behaviour was added in ansible-core 2.14. Choices:
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If specified and no begin/ending A special value is available; If specified regular expression has no matches, the block will be inserted at the end of the file. The presence of the multiline flag (?m) in the regular expression controls whether the match is done line by line or with multiple lines. This behaviour was added in ansible-core 2.14. Choices:
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The marker line template.
Using a custom marker without the Multi-line markers are not supported and will result in the block being repeatedly inserted on subsequent playbook runs. A newline is automatically appended by the module to Default: |
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This will be inserted at Default: |
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This will be inserted at Default: |
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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, 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, If If Specifying |
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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. |
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The file to modify. Before Ansible 2.3 this option was only usable as dest, destfile and name. |
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The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the When set to |
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The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context. When set to |
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The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context. When set to |
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The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context. By default it uses the When set to |
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Whether the block should be there or not. Choices:
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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:
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The validation command to run before copying the updated file into the final destination. A temporary file path is used to validate, passed in through ‘%s’ which must be present as in the examples below. Also, the command is passed securely so shell features such as expansion and pipes will not work. For an example on how to handle more complex validation than what this option provides, see handling complex validation. |
Attributes
Attribute |
Support |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Support: full |
Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target |
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Support: full |
Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode |
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Platform: posix |
Target OS/families that can be operated against |
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Support: full |
Uses Ansible’s strict file operation functions to ensure proper permissions and avoid data corruption |
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Support: none |
Can automatically decrypt Ansible vaulted files |
Notes
Note
When using ‘with_*’ loops be aware that if you do not set a unique mark the block will be overwritten on each iteration.
As of Ansible 2.3, the dest option has been changed to path as default, but dest still works as well.
Option follow has been removed in Ansible 2.5, because this module modifies the contents of the file so follow=no doesn’t make sense.
When more then one block should be handled in one file you must change the marker per task.
Examples
# Before Ansible 2.3, option 'dest' or 'name' was used instead of 'path'
- name: Insert/Update "Match User" configuration block in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
path: /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/)
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
path: /etc/network/interfaces
block: |
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.0.2.23
netmask 255.255.255.0
- name: Insert/Update configuration using a local file and validate it
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
block: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.file', './local/sshd_config') }}"
path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
backup: yes
validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -T -f %s
- name: Insert/Update HTML surrounded by custom markers after <body> line
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
path: /var/www/html/index.html
marker: "<!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"
insertafter: "<body>"
block: |
<h1>Welcome to {{ ansible_hostname }}</h1>
<p>Last updated on {{ ansible_date_time.iso8601 }}</p>
- name: Remove HTML as well as surrounding markers
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
path: /var/www/html/index.html
marker: "<!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"
block: ""
- name: Add mappings to /etc/hosts
ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
path: /etc/hosts
block: |
{{ item.ip }} {{ item.name }}
marker: "# {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK {{ item.name }}"
loop:
- { name: host1, ip: 10.10.1.10 }
- { name: host2, ip: 10.10.1.11 }
- { name: host3, ip: 10.10.1.12 }
- name: Search with a multiline search flags regex and if found insert after
blockinfile:
path: listener.ora
block: "{{ listener_line | indent(width=8, first=True) }}"
insertafter: '(?m)SID_LIST_LISTENER_DG =\n.*\(SID_LIST ='
marker: " <!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"