When using Ansible's blockinfile module, you'll notice it automatically adds these markers:

# BEGIN ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
[your content here]
# END ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK

These markers serve an important purpose - they help Ansible identify which blocks it manages in configuration files. This prevents conflicts when:

• Multiple playbooks modify the same file
• You need to remove or update managed blocks later
• Tracking automated vs manual changes

There are valid cases where markers aren't desirable:

1. When modifying files that are sensitive to comments (like JSON)
2. When the markers break file syntax or formatting
3. For cleaner configuration files in production

Since Ansible 2.4, you can control markers with the marker parameter. To completely disable them:

- name: Insert configuration without markers
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /etc/example.conf
    block: |
      server {
        listen 8080;
      }
    marker: ""

If you still want some identification but with different formatting:

- name: Custom marker format
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /etc/nginx.conf
    block: "proxy_pass http://backend;"
    marker: "{mark} CUSTOM MANAGED BLOCK {mark}"

• Version Requirement: This works on Ansible 2.4+
• Idempotency: Without markers, Ansible can't properly track managed blocks
• Backup Strategy: Consider implementing file backups when disabling markers

Here's how to modify a JSON config without breaking its syntax:

- name: Update JSON config
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /opt/app/config.json
    block: '"timeout": 30'
    insertafter: '"debug": false'
    marker: ""
    validate: '/usr/bin/json_validate %s'

When using Ansible's blockinfile module to insert or modify blocks of text in configuration files, you'll notice it automatically adds these markers:

# BEGIN ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK
[your content here]
# END ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK

These markers serve important purposes in configuration management:

• Identifies Ansible-managed sections
• Helps with idempotency (only managing the marked blocks)
• Prevents conflicts with manual edits

While not generally recommended, you can disable markers using these parameters:

- name: Insert block without markers
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /path/to/file
    block: |
      This is my content
      spanning multiple lines
    marker: ""

If you want different markers (but not completely remove them):

- name: Use custom markers
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /path/to/file
    block: "Your content here"
    marker: "// {mark} ANSIBLE CUSTOM BLOCK"

Before removing markers, consider these implications:

• Makes it harder to identify Ansible-managed content
• Potential conflicts with manual edits
• May break idempotency in some cases

Here's how you might use this in a production environment:

- name: Configure nginx without markers
  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
    path: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    block: |
      server {
          listen 80;
          server_name example.com;
      }
    marker: ""
    backup: yes