Editing an j2 template using ansible - ansible

Question

I have an vendor Ansible playbook given to us and I will need add an new line to the j2 template and tweak the playbook for our env,
I will need to edit the template with an line -> retention_days: {{ xyz }}
This is how the orginal template looks like:
#cat cluster.j2
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: cluster
cluster_name: {{ my_name }}
data:
new_image: |+
baseImage: {{ FROM_repo }}
And here is my Ansible playbook to add the line.
---
- name: mydata
hosts: localhost
tasks:
- name: edit files
lineinfile:
dest: cluster.j2
line: " retention_days: {{ xyz }}"
insertafter: 'new_image'
My end result ie; my j2 template file should have the exact string like this
retention_days: {{ xyz }}
final - file should look like this ->
#cat cluster.j2
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: cluster
cluster_name: {{ my_name }}
data:
new_image: |+
retention_days: {{ xyz }}
baseImage: {{ FROM_repo }}
I don't want the {{ xyz }} to be treated as an variable by Ansible instead consider it a string and add them there... How can I escape the {{ and }} Please let me know .
Now ., I get an error: xyz is undefined..
MSG:
***The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'xyz' is undefined***

Answer 1

As specified in the documentation, you can use {% raw %} to escape elements in a block, or add additional curly braces.
For example:
---
- name: mydata
hosts: localhost
tasks:
- name: edit files
lineinfile:
dest: cluster.j2
line: " retention_days: {% raw %}{{ xyz }}{% endraw %}"
# or
# line: " retention_days: {{ '{{ xyz }}' }}"
insertafter: 'new_image'