lineinfile: Don't insert lines if they already exist

Question

It's creating a new file and adding content to it. If a re-run ansible for a second time the text content will be applied again below the lines but overwrite the last line bantime = 86400.

What I need it to do, is if the text already is applied, don't add it again. I assume my regexp is set wrong.

- name: add custom settings 
  lineinfile: dest=/etc/fail2ban/jail.local regexp='^' line='maxretry = 3\nfindtime = 10800\nbantime = 86400' create=yes state=present backrefs=yes

Answer 1

From the lineinfile examples:

# Add a line to a file if it does not exist, without passing regexp
- lineinfile: dest=/tmp/testfile line="192.168.1.99 foo.lab.net foo"

Line with \n is not a line, those are multiple lines and they can't be matched on next run as a line. You should add each line as a separate task:

- name: add maxretry setting
  lineinfile: dest=/etc/fail2ban/jail.local line='maxretry = 3' create=yes

- name: add findtime setting
  lineinfile: dest=/etc/fail2ban/jail.local line='findtime = 10800' create=yes

- name: add bantime setting
  lineinfile: dest=/etc/fail2ban/jail.local line='bantime = 86400' create=yes

Also remove regexp and backerefs settings, since they are not needed and state, since present is a default value.

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However it's better to also pass regexp with setting and the name without value. So if you change setting value, it will replace string in file instead of adding new one, like:

- name: add maxretry setting
  lineinfile: dest=/etc/fail2ban/jail.local regexp='^maxretry = ' line='maxretry = 3' create=yes