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

- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- See Also
- Examples
- Return Values
- Status

## Synopsis

- This module will search a file for a line, and ensure that it is present or absent.
- This is primarily useful when you want to change a single line in a file only.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---

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 flag changes the operation of the module slightly; `insertbefore` and `insertafter` will be ignored, and if the `regexp` doesn't 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

Determine whether a backup should be created.
When set to `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.

encoding
string

Default:
"auto"

Specifies the encoding of the source text file to operate on (and thus what the output encoding will be). The default of `auto` will cause the module to auto-detect the encoding of the source file and ensure that the modified file is written with the same encoding.
An explicit encoding can be passed as a string that is a valid value to pass to the .NET framework System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding() method - see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.encoding%28v=vs.110%29.aspx.
This is mostly useful with `create=yes` if you want to create a new file with a specific encoding. If `create=yes` is specified without a specific encoding, the default encoding (UTF-8, no BOM) will be used.

insertafter
string

Choices:
- EOF ←
- *regex*

Used with `state=present`. If specified, the line will be inserted after the last match of specified regular expression. 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. May not be used with `backrefs`.

insertbefore
string

Choices:
- BOF
- *regex*

Used with `state=present`. If specified, the line will be inserted before the last match of specified regular expression. 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. May not be used with `backrefs`.

line
string

Required for `state=present`. The line to insert/replace into the file. If `backrefs` is set, may contain backreferences that will get expanded with the `regexp` capture groups if the regexp matches.
Be aware that the line is processed first on the controller and thus is dependent on yaml quoting rules. Any double quoted line will have control characters, such as '\r\n', expanded. To print such characters literally, use single or no quotes.

newline
string

Choices:
- unix
- windows ←

Specifies the line separator style to use for the modified file. This defaults to the windows line separator (`\r\n`). Note that the indicated line separator will be used for file output regardless of the original line separator that appears in the input file.

path path / required |  | The path of the file to modify. Note that the Windows path delimiter `\` must be escaped as `\\` when the line is double quoted. Before Ansible 2.3 this option was only usable as dest, destfile and name. aliases: dest, destfile, name
regex - |  | 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 to remove. Uses .NET compatible regular expressions; see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hs600312%28v=vs.110%29.aspx. aliases: regexp

state
string

Choices:
- absent
- present ←

Whether the line should be there or not.

validate string |  | Validation to run before copying into place. Use %s in the command to indicate the current file to validate. The command is passed securely so shell features like expansion and pipes won't 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

assemble – Assemble configuration files from fragments
  The official documentation on the assemble module.
lineinfile – Manage lines in text files
  The official documentation on the lineinfile module.

## Examples

    # Before Ansible 2.3, option 'dest', 'destfile' or 'name' was used instead of 'path'
    - name: Insert path without converting \r\n
      win_lineinfile:
        path: c:\file.txt
        line: c:\return\new

    - win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\example.conf
        regex: '^name='
        line: 'name=JohnDoe'

    - win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\example.conf
        regex: '^name='
        state: absent

    - win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\example.conf
        regex: '^127\.0\.0\.1'
        line: '127.0.0.1 localhost'

    - win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\httpd.conf
        regex: '^Listen '
        insertafter: '^#Listen '
        line: Listen 8080

    - win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\services
        regex: '^# port for http'
        insertbefore: '^www.*80/tcp'
        line: '# port for http by default'

    - name: Create file if it doesn't exist with a specific encoding
      win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\utf16.txt
        create: yes
        encoding: utf-16
        line: This is a utf-16 encoded file

    - name: Add a line to a file and ensure the resulting file uses unix line separators
      win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\testfile.txt
        line: Line added to file
        newline: unix

    - name: Update a line using backrefs
      win_lineinfile:
        path: C:\Temp\example.conf
        backrefs: yes
        regex: '(^name=)'
        line: '$1JohnDoe'

## Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---
backup string | if backup=yes | Name of the backup file that was created. This is now deprecated, use `backup_file` instead. Sample: C:\Path\To\File.txt.11540.20150212-220915.bak
backup_file string | if backup=yes | Name of the backup file that was created. Sample: C:\Path\To\File.txt.11540.20150212-220915.bak

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Brian Lloyd (@brianlloyd)

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