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

- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- Examples
- Status

## Synopsis

- This module will replace all instances of a pattern within a file.
- It is up to the user to maintain idempotence by ensuring that the same pattern would never match any replacements made.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
after string added in 2.4 |  | If specified, only content after this match will be replaced/removed. Can be used in combination with `before`. Uses Python regular expressions; see http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html. Uses DOTALL, which means the `.` special character can match newlines.
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.
before string added in 2.4 |  | If specified, only content before this match will be replaced/removed. Can be used in combination with `after`. Uses Python regular expressions; see http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html. Uses DOTALL, which means the `.` special character can match newlines.
encoding string added in 2.4 | Default: "utf-8" | The character encoding for reading and writing the file.
group string |  | Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
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`). As of Ansible 2.6, the mode may also be the special string `preserve`. When set to `preserve` the file will be given the same permissions as the source file.
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 / required |  | The regular expression to look for in the contents of the file. Uses Python regular expressions; see http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html. Uses MULTILINE mode, which means `^` and `$` match the beginning and end of the file, as well as the beginning and end respectively of each line of the file. Does not use DOTALL, which means the `.` special character matches any character except newlines. A common mistake is to assume that a negated character set like `[^#]` will also not match newlines. In order to exclude newlines, they must be added to the set like `[^#\n]`. Note that, as of Ansible 2.0, short form tasks should have any escape sequences backslash-escaped in order to prevent them being parsed as string literal escapes. See the examples.
replace string |  | The string to replace regexp matches. May contain backreferences that will get expanded with the regexp capture groups if the regexp matches. If not set, matches are removed entirely. Backreferences can be used ambiguously like `\1`, or explicitly like `\g<1>`.
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.
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.
- As of Ansible 2.7.10, the combined use of before and after works properly. If you were relying on the previous incorrect behavior, you may be need to adjust your tasks. See https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/31354 for details.
- 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.

## Examples

    - name: Before Ansible 2.3, option 'dest', 'destfile' or 'name' was used instead of 'path'
      replace:
        path: /etc/hosts
        regexp: '(\s+)old\.host\.name(\s+.*)?$'
        replace: '\1new.host.name\2'

    - name: Replace after the expression till the end of the file (requires Ansible >= 2.4)
      replace:
        path: /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.conf
        after: 'NameVirtualHost [*]'
        regexp: '^(.+)$'
        replace: '# \1'

    - name: Replace before the expression till the begin of the file (requires Ansible >= 2.4)
      replace:
        path: /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.conf
        before: '# live site config'
        regexp: '^(.+)$'
        replace: '# \1'

    # Prior to Ansible 2.7.10, using before and after in combination did the opposite of what was intended.
    # see https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/31354 for details.
    - name: Replace between the expressions (requires Ansible >= 2.4)
      replace:
        path: /etc/hosts
        after: '<VirtualHost [*]>'
        before: '</VirtualHost>'
        regexp: '^(.+)$'
        replace: '# \1'

    - name: Supports common file attributes
      replace:
        path: /home/jdoe/.ssh/known_hosts
        regexp: '^old\.host\.name[^\n]*\n'
        owner: jdoe
        group: jdoe
        mode: '0644'

    - name: Supports a validate command
      replace:
        path: /etc/apache/ports
        regexp: '^(NameVirtualHost|Listen)\s+80\s*$'
        replace: '\1 127.0.0.1:8080'
        validate: '/usr/sbin/apache2ctl -f %s -t'

    - name: Short form task (in ansible 2+) necessitates backslash-escaped sequences
      replace: path=/etc/hosts regexp='\\b(localhost)(\\d*)\\b' replace='\\1\\2.localdomain\\2 \\1\\2'

    - name: Long form task does not
      replace:
        path: /etc/hosts
        regexp: '\b(localhost)(\d*)\b'
        replace: '\1\2.localdomain\2 \1\2'

    - name: Explicitly specifying positional matched groups in replacement
      replace:
        path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        regexp: '^(ListenAddress[ ]+)[^\n]+$'
        replace: '\g<1>0.0.0.0'

    - name: Explicitly specifying named matched groups
      replace:
        path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        regexp: '^(?P<dctv>ListenAddress[ ]+)(?P<host>[^\n]+)$'
        replace: '#\g<dctv>\g<host>\n\g<dctv>0.0.0.0'

## Status

- This module is guaranteed to have backward compatible interface changes going forward. [stableinterface]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Evan Kaufman (@EvanK)

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