# sysctl.conf **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [December 9, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996 "2014-12-09T15:41:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mzp45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mzp45](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mzp45)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/1 "2014-12-09T15:41:27Z")
Hello, Is there a way to create a backup of /etc/sysctl.conf when making a change using the sysctl core module? If not can this feature be added? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Toshio_Kuratomi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/2 "2014-12-10T00:08:43Z")
In general, ansible modules do not perform backups of files that they modify. I'm not sure that sysctl is especially special in this regard. Is there a reason you need this for sysctl but not for copy, or any of the other modules? -Toshio ---
**Author:** ![Mzp45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mzp45](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mzp45)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/3 "2014-12-10T16:20:43Z")
I was thinking an implementation along the lines of the “lineinfile” module where you can edit a file and create a backup at the same time. For the sysctl module if you have to edit a sysctl.conf file then a backup seems like a good failsafe. ---
**Author:** ![Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Toshio_Kuratomi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/4 "2014-12-10T18:17:38Z")
Yeah, I just noticed that backup actually does exist on a lot of the file-like modules. I just hadn't noticed them before. So yeah, adding a backup parameter that does the same thing for sysctl seems like a good idea. Could you open a pull request if you can code it or an issue if you can't so that hte idea doesn't get lost? Thanks, -Toshio ---
**Author:** ![Mzp45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mzp45](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mzp45)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/5 "2014-12-12T17:51:42Z")
Sure, I’ll work on the pull request. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/6 "2014-12-15T11:51:16Z")
Let’s not add a new backup parameter. The existing backup=yes/no parameter that only creates local backups needs to be overhauled to do remotes, and we can generalize it at this time. ---
**Author:** ![Mzp45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mzp45](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mzp45)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/7 "2014-12-15T18:35:38Z")
In which release would the overall be completed? Thanks ---
**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:** [December 15, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/8 "2014-12-15T18:42:21Z")
Honestly, no idea. We need to get the v2 refactoring out in 1.9 (worst case 2.0) first, and then we’ll be in a good position to make a generalized backup mechanism. Until then, something like a “fetch” module call to manually do it would be a good solution. ---
**Author:** ![Mzp45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mzp45](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mzp45)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sysctl-conf/16996/9 "2014-12-16T18:41:22Z")
I dont know if fetch itself will work for me. All i want to do is create a backup of a file on the client before i edit it using sysctl. I guess i could try a fetch first and then a copy back to the destination. For the overall are you going to add a backup option every time a file gets modified (file modules, sysctl moudles, etc.) ? Thanks