# Adapted from solution provided by http://stackoverflow.com/users/57719/chin-huang http://stackoverflow.com/a/31465939/348868 # Scenario: You want to add a group to the list of the AllowGroups in ssh_config # before: # AllowGroups Group1 # After: # AllowGroups Group1 Group2 - name: Add Group to AllowGroups replace: backup: yes dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config regexp: '^(AllowGroups(?!.*\b{{ sftp_group_name }}\b).*)$' replace: '\1 {{ sftp_group_name }}' # This could also be achieved using the line in file module: - name: Add Group to AllowGroups lineinfile: dest=/etc/ssh/sshd_config backup=True backrefs=True state=present regexp='^(AllowGroups(?!.*\b{{ sftp_group_name }}\b).*)$' line='\1 {{ sftp_group_name }}'