remove block of text from config file using ansible

You can use replace module:

- replace:
    path: /etc/smb.conf
    regexp: '^\[public\][^[]+'
    replace: ''
    backup: yes

This should remove everything between [public] and [ or EOF.

Ansible has native ini-file support, which is a much cleaner way to accomplish this.

- name: remove public block
  ini_file:
    path: /etc/smb.conf
    section: public
    state: absent

Here is one that will remove the entire tag in an apache config file:

replace:
path: "{{my_path}}"
regexp: '^<Directory /var/www/>(.*\n)*</Directory>$'
replace: ''

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