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blockinfile

Collection Note

This module is part of the ansible.builtin collection. To install the collection, use:

ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.builtin
Added in version 2.0.

Synopsis

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

Parameters

Parameter Defaults / Choices Comments
append_newline
bool		 Append a blank line to the inserted block, if this does not appear at the end of the file.
Note that this attribute is not considered when C(state) is set to C(absent)
Version Added: 2.16
attributes
str		 The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.
To get supported flags look at the man page for C(chattr) on the target system.
This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by C(lsattr).
The C(=) operator is assumed as default, otherwise C(+) or C(-) operators need to be included in the string.
Version Added: 2.3
backup
bool		 Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
block
str		 The text to insert inside the marker lines.
If it is missing or an empty string, the block will be removed as if O(state) were specified to V(absent).
create
bool		 Create a new file if it does not exist.
group
str		 Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to C(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.
insertafter
str		 If specified and no begin/ending O(marker) lines are found, the block will be inserted after the last match of specified regular expression.
A special value is available; V(EOF) for inserting the block at the end of the file.
If specified regular expression has no matches or no value is passed, V(EOF) will be used instead.
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.
insertbefore
str		 If specified and no begin/ending O(marker) lines are found, the block will be inserted before the last match of specified regular expression.
A special value is available; V(BOF) for inserting the block at the beginning of the file.
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.
marker
str		 Default: # {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
 The marker line template.
C({mark}) will be replaced with the values in O(marker_begin) (default=C(BEGIN)) and O(marker_end) (default=C(END)).
Using a custom marker without the C({mark}) variable may result in the block being repeatedly inserted on subsequent playbook runs.
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 O(marker_begin) and O(marker_end).
marker_begin
str		 Default: BEGIN
 This will be inserted at C({mark}) in the opening ansible block O(marker).
Version Added: 2.5
marker_end
str		 Default: END
 This will be inserted at C({mark}) in the closing ansible block O(marker).
Version Added: 2.5
mode
raw		 The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.
For those used to C(/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, V('644') or V('1777')) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, V(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, V(u+rwx) or V(u=rw,g=r,o=r)).
If O(mode) is not specified and the destination filesystem object B(does not) exist, the default C(umask) on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created filesystem object.
If O(mode) is not specified and the destination filesystem object B(does) exist, the mode of the existing filesystem object will be used.
Specifying O(mode) is the best way to ensure filesystem objects are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.
owner
str		 Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to C(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.
path
path
required		 The file to modify.
Before Ansible 2.3 this option was only usable as O(dest), O(destfile) and O(name).
prepend_newline
bool		 Prepend a blank line to the inserted block, if this does not appear at the beginning of the file.
Note that this attribute is not considered when C(state) is set to C(absent)
Version Added: 2.16
selevel
str		 The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the C(range).
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(level) portion of the policy if available.
serole
str		 The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(role) portion of the policy if available.
setype
str		 The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(type) portion of the policy if available.
seuser
str		 The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context.
By default it uses the V(system) policy, where applicable.
When set to V(_default), it will use the C(user) portion of the policy if available.
state
str		 Default: present
Choices: absent, present		 Whether the block should be there or not.
unsafe_writes
bool		 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.
Version Added: 2.2
validate
str		 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 C(%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 R(handling complex validation,complex_configuration_validation).

Notes

Note

  • When using C(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 O(dest) option has been changed to O(path) as default, but O(dest) still works as well.
  • Option O(ignore:follow) has been removed in Ansible 2.5, because this module modifies the contents of the file so O(ignore:follow=no) does not make sense.
  • When more than one block should be handled in one file you must change the O(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 prepending and appending a new line
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    append_newline: true
    prepend_newline: true
    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 -->"

Authors

  • Yaegashi Takeshi (@yaegashi)