# need to replace a line in config file **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 5, 2018, 6:21am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940 "2018-11-05T06:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 6:21am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/1 "2018-11-05T06:21:17Z")
Hi Experts, Please help me with your guidance here. I want to comment a line in one config file and need to uncomment the other lline using ansible. My file content as below. ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/2 "2018-11-05T11:34:34Z")
Hi Experts, Any suggestion here ? ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/3 "2018-11-05T13:50:27Z")
Hi I would not use lineinfile and regular expressions to manipulate XML. You might get it to work, but it will be very fragile. Instead have a look at the xml module, which (if you can get it to work) will be more robust: [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.4/xml\_module.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.4/xml_module.html) Dick ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/4 "2018-11-05T13:56:03Z")
> Hi Experts, > > Any suggestion here ? People do work in different timezone and/or are busy so you cant expect an answer one the hour. > > My file content as below. > > > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > > >         \ > >                          -------------------------this i want to comment > >     \" replace: "<{{ mark_2 }}>" - replace: path: /opt/IBM/server/liberty/servers/clm/server.xml regexp: "^<{{ mark_1 }}>" replace: "" backup: yes' ``` ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/11 "2018-11-12T16:14:11Z")
It would rather see the appreciation for my time by trying out the playbook that I sent. Because there is a very good chance that it will solve your problem. Please let me know how it went. Dick ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/12 "2018-11-12T17:23:39Z")
Hello Dick, Yes, You are right that the given play is working . The playbook is making changes on the xml file, but not as expected. Its making double entry for same ldap settings. one is commented another is uncommented. But here I want a result like comment only the basic user registry line and uncomment ldap line here the basic registry line itself got removed… ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/13 "2018-11-12T17:32:06Z")
Hello Dick, Now this is the output. Here ldapUserRegistry line is repeating twice where one should be basicUserRegistry xml file which should be commented… Thanks in advance for your help here ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/14 "2018-11-12T18:05:47Z")
Hi Visar You keep thinking in terms of "commenting out lines" in your XML configuration file. But what you really want (although you might not realise it), is to configure your application server the right way. This playbook does exactly that. Ignore what is commented out - like your application server does. At this moment you're all set! Dick ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/15 "2018-11-12T19:16:15Z")
Hi Dick, By editing this configuration xml file I am disabling the default basicregistry file user authentication which is local and I am enabling the LDAP setting by commenting out. Once the LDAP line got uncommented I have my own LDAP settings in the ldapuser registry file. Also in some situations where LDAP is not working I want to use the default basic user registry as well. That’s why I am looking for enabling LDAP file and disabling basicregistry file here. In the given playbook ldapuser registry is enabled and disabled in different lines as I given in prevy example ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/16 "2018-11-13T11:17:12Z")
Hi Vivek It seems that the basics of XML and system configuration are not clear. There is no use in continuing this conversation for me. Regards Dick ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/17 "2018-11-13T12:23:44Z")
Hello Visser, I am sorry if i couldn’t explain you the way which i was looking for here. Please find the default server.xml file which is by default pointing to the “basicUserRegistry.xml” file located in applications conf directory. Here in order to proceed further installation step of our application, we have to enable “ldapUserRegistry.xml” file in the same directory. Because we cant proceed the further steps with “basicUserRegistry” user. We have already “ldapUserRegistry.xml” file edited with our domain properties and it will be replaced by another play book in the same applications conf directory. Now our requirement is to just enable the “ldapUserRegistry.xml” file and disable “basicUserRegistry.xml” ( We dont want to remove this parameter because in some troubleshooting scenarios, we can authenticate the application with basic user registry and check the things, where ldapuser is failing) here nothing else we want to modify in this file as mistake in this file modification will result the application down… ---
**Author:** ![Maria\_MacCallum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/54ee81/32.png) [@Maria\_MacCallum](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Maria_MacCallum)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/18 "2018-11-13T16:23:32Z")
Dear Visar, By no means am I an ansible expert but I thought of 2 ideas around the problem for you: 1. Have 2 files on the server you can copy between the 2 files to be the ‘active’ file using ansible, one with the commented out section, one with it active - When you have changes to make to the xml file use ansible to copy the new ones to the server 1. If you are using unix, you can use shell to use sed to search and replace. Hope this helps in the interim while you find a proper ansible solution to your problem Regards, Maria ---
**Author:** ![Vivek1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@Vivek1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vivek1)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/19 "2018-11-13T17:31:08Z")
Thanks Maria, I will check for that. Do u have any scenario like where you could modify the xml file with see command and how we can automate this using ansible… ---
**Author:** ![Maria\_MacCallum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/54ee81/32.png) [@Maria\_MacCallum](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Maria_MacCallum)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 10:00am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940/20 "2018-11-14T10:00:18Z")
Hello, Here’s a cobbled together example from a script of mine, sed uses regular expressions but can be slightly different how it works depending on your 'nix ‘flavour’, this comments out a specific line: sed -e “s/\pkg://puppetlabs.com/puppet-agent\/\pkg:/system/management/puppet\ –\>/” TEMPLATE-FILENAME \> FINAL-FILENAME If I break it down a bit: sed -e "s # 1st forward slash means the search field is next / # have to escape lots of chars with backslashes \pkg://puppetlabs.com/puppet-agent\ # next forward slash is for the replace field / \pkg:/system/management/puppet\ –\> # ends with a forward slash and quotes /" # Then the source filename comes next TEMPLATE-FILENAME # then however your shell can pipe to a new file > # Then your final filename FINAL-FILENAME Do lots of local testing 1st!!! Regards, Maria [Next page](https://forum.ansible.com/t/need-to-replace-a-line-in-config-file/28940.md?page=2)