# lininfile fails on line with colon in it **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ansible-project\ **Created:** [March 22, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557 "2013-03-22T21:00:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/1 "2013-03-22T21:00:41Z")
If there is a colon in a YAML line, it must be quoted. Because you have escaped your starting quote with \", that doesn't count as a quote, and does not serve to quote the colon. It appears the answer is to not escape your leading \", and instead just say lineinfile:" ... and to keep it simple, use single quotes inside the double, and you own't have to escape anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Klausner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@Peter\_Klausner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Peter_Klausner)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/2 "2013-04-12T17:13:53Z")
For the record, this syntax did it: lineinfile: “… line=‘foo: bar’ …” Note that the documentation still samples the wrong syntax: [http://ansible.cc/docs/modules.html#lineinfile](http://ansible.cc/docs/modules.html#lineinfile) And note that recent sudo supports the /etc/sudoers.d directory, which obsoletes mucking with lineinfile in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/3 "2013-04-12T17:43:03Z")
Right, hence “If there is a colon in a YAML line, it must be quoted.” ---
**Author:** ![Nick\_Doyle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nick\_Doyle](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick_Doyle)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/4 "2014-03-19T00:43:52Z")
Hm I still get the prob … - name: allow gateway sudo: yes lineinfile: line=“ALL: 127.0.0.1” dest=/etc/hosts.allow ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/5 "2014-03-19T00:46:14Z")
Please paste output and ansible --version. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/6 "2014-03-19T12:52:32Z")
Something like this should help Assuming the following variable declaration   vars:      - a\_column: "\x3A" then later you can have:     line="ALL{{ a\_column }} ALL" ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/7 "2014-03-19T14:00:08Z")
Hi Phil, There are no such sequences in the above post. Still waiting on version info and output. ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/8 "2014-03-19T14:49:33Z")
Hi Michael, sure the version info and output are much needed ! I had a very similar uses case to what I understood from Nick. I needed to insert/insure a line such as below being declared in /etc/hosts.deny file: ALL: ALL Using the lineinfile module, the only way I found for a line to contain a column character, is to use something like I described. That is having a variable being defined like: a\_column: “\x3A” and in the playbook a task like: lineinfile: dest=/etc/hosts.deny state=present regexp=‘^ALL:\s+ALL’ line=“ALL{{ a\_column }} ALL” insertafter=EOF Having the following task will not work: lineinfile: dest=/etc/hosts.deny state=present regexp=‘^ALL:\s+ALL’ line=“ALL: ALL” and lead to the following output: ERROR: Syntax Error while loading YAML script, /host\_access\_restricted/tasks/main.yml Note: The error may actually appear before this position: line 33, column 14 regexp=‘^ALL:\s+ALL’ line=“ALL: ALL” ^ ansible-playbook version in my case is 1.5.3 Not sure if the above error really is an error or should be considered as a bug. Note: this is old code on my side and IIRC I applied this workaround since ansible \>= 1.2 HTH Phil. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/9 "2014-03-19T14:54:23Z")
I was hoping for a reply from Nick re the above but it may be you work together? In the above it appeared he had a “space” but it appears in your example you are talking about a non-space character. ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/10 "2014-03-19T14:59:15Z")
no, not working together. just because of a similar issue I had I thought I could help ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_Morris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Adam\_Morris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/11 "2014-03-19T15:51:27Z")
Actually it’s easier than that… I have a module where I need a colon in a lineinfile entry… - name: search files then dns for hosts lineinfile: ‘backup=yes dest={{network\_switch}} state=present regexp=“^hosts:” line=“hosts: files dns”’ Not just one colon in that line but two… I found that the double quoting was necessary, but there you go. Adam ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/12 "2014-03-19T16:14:31Z")
Thanks for this Based on your post , and in my case where the statement is spread over multiples lines I just found the following to work (tend to always forgot the yaml syntax for multi-line ) which to me is even simpler (this is just me) as no even need to double quote lineinfile: \> dest=/etc/hosts.deny state=present regexp=“^ALL:\s+ALL” line=“ALL: ALL” ---
**Author:** ![C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/C_Morgan_Hamill)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/13 "2014-03-19T16:20:53Z")
Excerpts from Philippe Eveque's message of 2014-03-19 12:14:31 -0400: >   lineinfile: \> >     dest=/etc/hosts.deny >     state=present >     regexp="^ALL:\s+ALL" >     line="ALL: ALL" Thought I'd add how I handle this:     lineinfile:       dest: /etc/host.deny       state: present       regexp: '^ALL:\s+ALL'       line: 'ALL: ALL' I personally find it slightly more readable. ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/lininfile-fails-on-line-with-colon-in-it/12557/14 "2014-03-19T16:27:26Z")
thanks Morgan, the single quote is the solution here.