ansible.builtin.lineinfile (v2.6.10) — module

Manage lines in text files

| "added in version" 0.7 of ansible.builtin"

Authors: Daniel Hokka Zakrissoni (@dhozac), Ahti Kitsik (@ahtik)

preview | supported by core

Install Ansible via pip

Install with pip install ansible==2.6.10

Description

This module ensures a particular line is in a file, or replace an existing line using a back-referenced regular expression.

This is primarily useful when you want to change a single line in a file only. See the M(replace) module if you want to change multiple, similar lines or check M(blockinfile) if you want to insert/update/remove a block of lines in a file. For other cases, see the M(copy) or M(template) modules.

Usage examples

  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
# Before 2.3, option 'dest', 'destfile' or 'name' was used instead of 'path'
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/selinux/config
    regexp: '^SELINUX='
    line: 'SELINUX=enforcing'
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sudoers
    state: absent
    regexp: '^%wheel'
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/hosts
    regexp: '^127\.0\.0\.1'
    line: '127.0.0.1 localhost'
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: 0644
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    regexp: '^Listen '
    insertafter: '^#Listen '
    line: 'Listen 8080'
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/services
    regexp: '^# port for http'
    insertbefore: '^www.*80/tcp'
    line: '# port for http by default'
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
# Add a line to a file if the file does not exist, without passing regexp
- lineinfile:
    path: /tmp/testfile
    line: '192.168.1.99 foo.lab.net foo'
    create: yes
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
# Fully quoted because of the ': ' on the line. See the Gotchas in the YAML docs.
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sudoers
    state: present
    regexp: '^%wheel\s'
    line: '%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL'
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
# Yaml requires escaping backslashes in double quotes but not in single quotes
- lineinfile:
    path: /opt/jboss-as/bin/standalone.conf
    regexp: '^(.*)Xms(\\d+)m(.*)$'
    line: '\1Xms${xms}m\3'
    backrefs: yes
  • Success
    Steampunk Spotter scan finished with no errors, warnings or hints.
# Validate the sudoers file before saving
- lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sudoers
    state: present
    regexp: '^%ADMIN ALL='
    line: '%ADMIN ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL'
    validate: '/usr/sbin/visudo -cf %s'

Inputs

    
line:
    description:
    - Required for C(state=present). The line to insert/replace into the file. If C(backrefs)
      is set, may contain backreferences that will get expanded with the C(regexp) capture
      groups if the regexp matches.

mode:
    description:
    - The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.
    - For those used to I(/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.
    type: raw

path:
    aliases:
    - dest
    - destfile
    - name
    description:
    - The file to modify.
    - Before 2.3 this option was only usable as I(dest), I(destfile) and I(name).
    required: true

group:
    description:
    - Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to I(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.
    type: str

owner:
    description:
    - Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to I(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.
    type: str

state:
    choices:
    - absent
    - present
    default: present
    description:
    - Whether the line should be there or not.

backup:
    default: 'no'
    description:
    - Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original
      file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
    type: bool

create:
    default: 'no'
    description:
    - Used with C(state=present). If specified, the file will be created if it does not
      already exist. By default it will fail if the file is missing.
    type: bool

others:
    description:
    - All arguments accepted by the M(file) module also work here.

regexp:
    description:
    - The regular expression to look for in every line of the file.
    - For C(state=present), the pattern to replace if found. Only the last line found
      will be replaced.
    - For C(state=absent), the pattern of the line(s) to remove.
    - If the regular expression is not matched, the line will be added to the file in
      keeping with`insertbefore` or `insertafter` settings.
    - When modifying a line the regexp should typically match both the initial state of
      the line as well as its state after replacement by C(line) to ensure idempotence.
    - Uses Python regular expressions. See U(http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html).
    version_added: '1.7'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin

serole:
    description:
    - 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.
    type: str

setype:
    description:
    - 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.
    type: str

seuser:
    description:
    - 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.
    type: str

selevel:
    description:
    - 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.
    type: str

backrefs:
    default: 'no'
    description:
    - Used with C(state=present). If set, C(line) can contain backreferences (both positional
      and named) that will get populated if the C(regexp) matches. This flag changes the
      operation of the module slightly; C(insertbefore) and C(insertafter) will be ignored,
      and if the C(regexp) doesn't match anywhere in the file, the file will be left unchanged.
      If the C(regexp) does match, the last matching line will be replaced by the expanded
      line parameter.
    type: bool
    version_added: '1.1'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin

validate:
    description:
    - 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 R(handling complex validation,complex_configuration_validation).
    type: str

attributes:
    aliases:
    - attr
    description:
    - The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.
    - To get supported flags look at the man page for I(chattr) on the target system.
    - This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed
      by I(lsattr).
    - The C(=) operator is assumed as default, otherwise C(+) or C(-) operators need to
      be included in the string.
    type: str
    version_added: '2.3'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin

firstmatch:
    default: 'no'
    description:
    - Used with C(insertafter) or C(insertbefore). If set, C(insertafter) and C(inserbefore)
      find a first line has regular expression matches.
    type: bool
    version_added: '2.5'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin

insertafter:
    choices:
    - EOF
    - '*regex*'
    default: EOF
    description:
    - Used with C(state=present). If specified, the line will be inserted after the last
      match of specified regular expression. If the first match is required, use(firstmatch=yes).
      A special value is available; C(EOF) for inserting the line at the end of the file.
      If specified regular expression has no matches, EOF will be used instead. May not
      be used with C(backrefs).

insertbefore:
    choices:
    - BOF
    - '*regex*'
    description:
    - Used with C(state=present). If specified, the line will be inserted before the last
      match of specified regular expression. If the first match is required, use(firstmatch=yes).
      A value is available; C(BOF) for inserting the line at the beginning of the file.
      If specified regular expression has no matches, the line will be inserted at the
      end of the file.  May not be used with C(backrefs).
    version_added: '1.1'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin

unsafe_writes:
    default: false
    description:
    - 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.
    type: bool
    version_added: '2.2'
    version_added_collection: ansible.builtin