How to uncomment more than one line in Ansible?

Question

I want to uncommnent this lines, but leaving "privides UDP/TCP..." commented:

# provides UDP syslog reception
# module(load="imudp")
# input(type="imudp" port="514")

# provides TCP syslog reception
# module(load="imudp")
# input(type="imudp" port="514")

This is my current task for uncommenting one line:

- name: Change rsyslog configuration
  lineinfile:
    dest: /etc/rsyslog.conf
    regex: '^module(load="imudp")'
    line: 'module(load="imudp")'

But how can I extend this task to uncomment more lines? I think it can be done adding variables in regex and parse values using loop with_items, but don't know how to achieve it. What is the best practice to do this?

Answer 1

Module lineinfile will place the line into the file even when regex is not matched.

The task below

  tasks:
    - lineinfile:
        # firstmatch: true
        dest: rsyslog.conf
        regex: '^#\s*{{ item.regex }}(.*)$'
        line: '{{ item.line }}'
      loop:
        - regex: 'module\(load="imudp"\)'
          line: 'module(load="imudp")'
        - regex: 'input\(type="imudp" port="514"\)'
          line: 'input(type="imudp" port="514")'

gives

# provides UDP syslog reception
# module(load="imudp")
# input(type="imudp" port="514")

# provides TCP syslog reception
module(load="imudp")
input(type="imudp" port="514")

and with "firstmatch: true" gives

# provides UDP syslog reception
module(load="imudp")
input(type="imudp" port="514")

# provides TCP syslog reception
# module(load="imudp")
# input(type="imudp" port="514")

---

The module replace will replace all instances of a pattern within the file

- replace:
    dest: rsyslog.conf
    regexp: '^#\s*{{ item.regex }}(.*)$'
    replace: '{{ item.replace }}'
  loop:
    - regex: 'module\(load="imudp"\)'
      replace: 'module(load="imudp")'
    - regex: 'input\(type="imudp" port="514"\)'
      replace: 'input(type="imudp" port="514")'

gives

# provides UDP syslog reception
module(load="imudp")
input(type="imudp" port="514")

# provides TCP syslog reception
module(load="imudp")
input(type="imudp" port="514")