lineinfile error.

Archives Ansible Project
1

Hi --

There's a bug either in the YAML parser or the lineinfile module (or the
documentation), I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. This example
from the docs:

  - lineinfile: dest=/etc/sudoers state=present regexp='^%wheel'
  line='%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL'

fails with:

ERROR: Syntax Error while loading YAML script,
/export/tools/ops/ansible/roles/common/tasks/main.yml
Note: The error may actually appear before this position: line 34,
column 95

The line 34, column 95 is the colon after NOPASSWD:

If this isn't a known issue, I'm happy to file a github issue. In the
meantime, any ideas for a workaround? Single quotes, loading the value
from a variable, and \: don't fix the problem. Interestingly (well, to
me), a colon in the regexp statement does not cause an error.

Thanks.
k.

2

quote everything from “dest … ALL’” , the : is a yaml special character and the whole module param string needs to be quoted.

3

Ah. There it is ... the quoting permutation I didn't try. Thanks a ton
for your help. It'd be great to see the bug in the documentation fixed.

k.

4

it is documented that ANY module, not just lineinfile needs to be careful with YAML characters. It is just appears more commonly in lineinfile cause of obvious reasons.