# lineinfile – Manage lines in text files

- Synopsis

- Parameters

- Notes

- See Also

- Examples

- Status

## Synopsis

- 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 replace module if you want to change multiple, similar lines or check blockinfile if you want to insert/update/remove a block of lines in a file. For other cases, see the copy or template modules.

## 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

backrefs
boolean

Choices:
- no ←
- yes

Used with `state=present`.
If set, `line` can contain backreferences (both positional and named) that will get populated if the `regexp` matches.
This parameter changes the operation of the module slightly; `insertbefore` and `insertafter` will be ignored, and if the `regexp` does not match anywhere in the file, the file will be left unchanged.
If the `regexp` does match, the last matching line will be replaced by the expanded line parameter.

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.

create
boolean

Choices:
- no ←
- yes

Used with `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.

firstmatch
boolean
added in 2.5

Choices:
- no ←
- yes

Used with `insertafter` or `insertbefore`.
If set, `insertafter` and `insertbefore` will work with the first line that matches the given regular expression.

group string |  | Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.

insertafter
string

Choices:
- EOF ←
- *regex*

Used with `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; `EOF` for inserting the line at the end of the file.
If specified regular expression has no matches, EOF will be used instead.
If `insertbefore` is set, default value `EOF` will be ignored.
If regular expressions are passed to both `regexp` and `insertafter`, `insertafter` is only honored if no match for `regexp` is found.
May not be used with `backrefs` or `insertbefore`.

insertbefore
string

Choices:
- BOF
- *regex*

Used with `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; `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.
If regular expressions are passed to both `regexp` and `insertbefore`, `insertbefore` is only honored if no match for `regexp` is found.
May not be used with `backrefs` or `insertafter`.

line string |  | The line to insert/replace into the file. Required for `state=present`. If `backrefs` is set, may contain backreferences that will get expanded with the `regexp` capture groups if the regexp matches. aliases: value

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`).

others string |  | All arguments accepted by the file module also work here.
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

regexp
string

The regular expression to look for in every line of the file.
For `state=present`, the pattern to replace if found. Only the last line found will be replaced.
For `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 `line` to ensure idempotence.
Uses Python regular expressions. See http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html.
aliases: regex

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 line 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

- As of Ansible 2.3, the dest option has been changed to path as default, but dest still works as well.

## See Also

See also

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

  The official documentation on the blockinfile module.

copy – Copy files to remote locations

  The official documentation on the copy module.

file – Manage files and file properties

  The official documentation on the file module.

replace – Replace all instances of a particular string in a file using a back-referenced regular expression

  The official documentation on the replace module.

template – Template a file out to a remote server

  The official documentation on the template module.

win_lineinfile – Ensure a particular line is in a file, or replace an existing line using a back-referenced regular expression

  The official documentation on the win_lineinfile module.

## Examples

    # NOTE: Before 2.3, option 'dest', 'destfile' or 'name' was used instead of 'path'
    - name: Ensure SELinux is set to enforcing mode
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/selinux/config
        regexp: '^SELINUX='
        line: SELINUX=enforcing

    - name: Make sure group wheel is not in the sudoers configuration
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/sudoers
        state: absent
        regexp: '^%wheel'

    - name: Replace a localhost entry with our own
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/hosts
        regexp: '^127\.0\.0\.1'
        line: 127.0.0.1 localhost
        owner: root
        group: root
        mode: '0644'

    - name: Ensure the default Apache port is 8080
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
        regexp: '^Listen '
        insertafter: '^#Listen '
        line: Listen 8080

    - name: Ensure we have our own comment added to /etc/services
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/services
        regexp: '^# port for http'
        insertbefore: '^www.*80/tcp'
        line: '# port for http by default'

    - name: 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

    # NOTE: Yaml requires escaping backslashes in double quotes but not in single quotes
    - name: Ensure the JBoss memory settings are exactly as needed
      lineinfile:
        path: /opt/jboss-as/bin/standalone.conf
        regexp: '^(.*)Xms(\\d+)m(.*)$'
        line: '\1Xms${xms}m\3'
        backrefs: yes

    # NOTE: Fully quoted because of the ': ' on the line. See the Gotchas in the YAML docs.
    - name: 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

## 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

- Daniel Hokka Zakrissoni (@dhozac)

- Ahti Kitsik (@ahtik)

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