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

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
attributes
(added in 2.3)
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
bool
    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.
dest Default:
"/etc/network/interfaces"
Path to the interfaces file
group
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
iface
Name of the interface, required for value changes or option remove
mode
Mode the file or directory should be. For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either specify the leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like 0644 or 01777) or quote it (like '644' or '0644' 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 version 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
option
Name of the option, required for value changes or option remove
owner
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
selevel Default:
"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
Role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
setype
Type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
seuser
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
    Choices:
  • present ←
  • absent
If set to absent the option or section will be removed if present instead of created.
unsafe_writes
bool

(added in 2.2)
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
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
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

Notes

Note

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

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, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key Returned Description
dest
string
 success
destination file/path

Sample:
/etc/network/interfaces
ifaces
complex
 success
interfaces dictionary
ifaces
dictionary
 success
interface dictionary
eth0
dictionary
 success
Name of the interface
address_family
string
 success
interface address family

Sample:
inet
method
string
 success
interface method

Sample:
manual
mtu
string
 success
other options, all values returned as strings

Sample:
1500
pre-up
list
 success
list of pre-up scripts

Sample:
['route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1', 'route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2']
up
list
 success
list of up scripts

Sample:
['route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1', 'route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2']
post-up
list
 success
list of post-up scripts

Sample:
['route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1', 'route add -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2']
down
list
 success
list of down scripts

Sample:
['route del -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 10.10.10.1 dev eth1', 'route del -net 10.10.11.0/24 gw 10.10.11.1 dev eth2']


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.

Maintenance

This module is flagged as community which means that it is maintained by the Ansible Community. See Module Maintenance & Support for more info.

For a list of other modules that are also maintained by the Ansible Community, see here.

Author

  • Roman Belyakovsky (@hryamzik)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.6/modules/interfaces_file_module.html