lineinfile with backrefs and create: yes is failing with path does not exist

Archives Ansible Project
1

Is this expected behaviour? I am trying to change a line in a file if it is already present, or create the file if it isn’t:

`

  • name: set ypserver to localhost
    lineinfile:
    dest: /etc/yp.conf
    create: yes
    state: present
    backup: yes
    backrefs: yes
    regexp: “^ypserver .*”
    line: “ypserver 127.0.0.1”
    notify: restart ypservices
    `

But I keep getting this error:

`
TASK [nismaster : set ypserver to localhost] ***********************************
fatal: [octans]: FAILED! => {“changed”: false, “failed”: true, “msg”: “path /etc/yp.conf does not exist”, “path”: “/etc/yp.conf”, “state”: “absent”}

`

2

I guess it because of backrefs=yes.
The documentation says this about backrefs,
"... and if the `regexp' doesn't match anywhere in the file, the file will be left unchanged."

So if the file doesn't exist regexp will not match and it will not do anything.

Since you are not using backrefs just remove the line since the default is no.