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

New in version 2.0.

Synopsis
Parameters
Notes
Examples
Status

Synopsis

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

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
attributes string added in 2.3		The attributes the resulting file or directory 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. aliases: attr
backup boolean	Choices: no ← yes	Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
block string	Default: ""	The text to insert inside the marker lines. If it is missing or an empty string, the block will be removed as if `state` were specified to `absent`. aliases: content
create boolean	Choices: no ← yes	Create a new file if it does not exist.
group string		Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
insertafter string	Choices: 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 expression has no matches, `EOF` will be used instead.
insertbefore string	Choices: 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 expression has no matches, the block will be inserted at the end of the file.
marker string	Default: "# {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK"	The marker line template. `{mark}` will be replaced with the values `in marker_begin` (default="BEGIN") and `marker_end` (default="END"). Using a custom marker without the `{mark}` variable may result in the block being repeatedly inserted on subsequent playbook runs.
marker_begin string added in 2.5	Default: "BEGIN"	This will be inserted at `{mark}` in the opening ansible block marker.
marker_end string added in 2.5	Default: "END"	This will be inserted at `{mark}` in the closing ansible block marker.
mode string		The permissions the resulting file or directory should have. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like `0644` or `01777`) or quote it (like `'644'` or `'1777'`) so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Giving Ansible a number without following one 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`).
owner string		Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
path path / required		The file to modify. Before Ansible 2.3 this option was only usable as dest, destfile and name. aliases: dest, destfile, name
selevel string	Default: "s0"	The level part of the SELinux file 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 file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `role` portion of the policy if available.
setype string		The type part of the SELinux file context. When set to `_default`, it will use the `type` portion of the policy if available.
seuser string		The user part of the SELinux file 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	Choices: absent present ←	Whether the block should be there or not.
unsafe_writes boolean added in 2.2	Choices: no ← yes	Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target file. By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, 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 files 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.
validate string		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 examples below. The command is passed securely so shell features like expansion and pipes will not work.

Notes

Note

This module supports check mode.
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
  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/)
  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
  blockinfile:
    block: "{{ lookup('file', './local/ssh_config') }}"
    dest: /etc/ssh/ssh_config
    backup: yes
    validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -T -f %s

- name: Insert/Update HTML surrounded by custom markers after <body> line
  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
  blockinfile:
    path: /var/www/html/index.html
    marker: "<!-- {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK -->"
    block: ""

- name: Add mappings to /etc/hosts
  blockinfile:
    path: /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 }

Status

This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
This module is maintained by the Ansible Core Team. [core]

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

Yaegashi Takeshi (@yaegashi)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/blockinfile_module.html