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interfaces_file - Tweak settings in /etc/network/interfaces files

New in version 2.4.

Synopsis

  • Manage (add, remove, change) individual interface options in an interfaces-style file without having to manage the file as a whole with, say, template or assemble. Interface has to be presented in a file.
  • Read information about interfaces from interfaces-styled files

Options

parameter required default choices comments
attributes
(added in 2.3)
no None
Attributes the 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.
aliases: attr
backup
no no
  • yes
  • no
Create a backup file including the timestamp information so you can get the original file back if you somehow clobbered it incorrectly.
dest
no /etc/network/interfaces
Path to the interfaces file
group
no
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
iface
no
Name of the interface, required for value changes or option remove
mode
no
Mode the file or directory should be. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers (like 0644). Leaving off the leading zero will likely have unexpected results. As of version 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
option
no
Name of the option, required for value changes or option remove
owner
no
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
selevel
no s0
Level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. _default feature works as for seuser.
serole
no
Role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
setype
no
Type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
seuser
no
User part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
state
no present
  • present
  • absent
If set to absent the option or section will be removed if present instead of created.
unsafe_writes
(added in 2.2)
no
  • yes
  • no
Normally this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example are docker mounted files, they cannot be updated atomically and can only be done in an unsafe manner.
This boolean option allows ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files for those cases in which you do not have any other choice. Be aware that this is subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.
value
no
If option is not presented for the interface and state is present option will be added. If option already exists and is not pre-up, up, post-up or down, it's value will be updated. pre-up, up, post-up and down options can't be updated, only adding new options, removing existing ones or cleaning the whole option set are supported

Examples

# Set eth1 mtu configuration value to 8000
- interfaces_file:
    dest: /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth1.cfg
    iface: eth1
    option: mtu
    value: 8000
    backup: yes
    state: present
  register: eth1_cfg

Return Values

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

name description returned type sample
dest
destination file/path
success string /etc/network/interfaces
ifaces
interfaces dictionary
success complex
contains:
name description returned type sample
ifaces
interface dictionary
success dictionary

Notes

Note

  • If option is defined multiple times last one will be updated but all will be deleted in case of an absent state

Status

This module is flagged as stableinterface which means that the maintainers for this module guarantee that no backward incompatible interface changes will be made.

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, Testing Ansible and Developing Modules.

© 2012–2017 Michael DeHaan
© 2017 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/interfaces_file_module.html