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

- 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 |  | 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 | 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/sshd_config') }}"
        dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_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 }}"
      loop:
        - { 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)

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