copy module with hard link destination

[Sean McGowan]

Background:  I am using Ansible 1.5 on RedHat.  Apparently system-config-network creates a hard link to /etc/hosts and /etc/resolve.conf.  I want to be able to copy the correct hosts file in place if is not there, whether or not the file links is > 1.

What happens:  If the source file is already the same as the destination, I get FAILED with a message "absolute paths are required".

I can find this message in the code of the file module, not the copy module.  Also, if the source file is different, the copy works fine.  I am assuming that it gets to the file module somehow after the atomic copy call in the copy module.

Anyhow, can someone please tell me if this should be expected and/or if there is a good work around?

Below is an example... Thanks in advance!

### /etc/hosts has > 1 links
[root@padishah1 ansible]# ls -l /etc/hosts  
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 13888 May 16 17:21 /etc/hosts
[root@padishah1 ansible]# find /etc -xdev -samefile /etc/hosts
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/hosts
/etc/hosts

### hosts.bkp = hosts && hosts.different != hosts
[root@padishah1 ansible]# md5sum /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.{bkp,different}
0f7cc9afcb0f17a9864b45391027a6ad  /etc/hosts
0f7cc9afcb0f17a9864b45391027a6ad  /etc/hosts.bkp
9c5799def96f6f2e7309a3914075589b  /etc/hosts.different

### Trying to use the copy module with an identical file fails
[root@padishah1 ansible]# ansible all -i <(echo -e "localhost ansible_connection=local") -m copy -a "src=/etc/hosts.bkp dest=/etc/hosts mode=0644 owner=root group=root" --check
localhost | FAILED >> {
    "failed": true,
    "md5sum": "0f7cc9afcb0f17a9864b45391027a6ad",
    "msg": "absolute paths are required"
}

### Trying to copy with a new file is sucessful
[root@padishah1 ansible]# ansible all -i <(echo -e "localhost ansible_connection=local") -m copy -a "src=/etc/hosts.different dest=/etc/hosts mode=0644 owner=root group=root" --check
--- before: /etc/hosts
+++ after: /etc/hosts.different
---diff redacted---
+
localhost | success >> {
    "changed": true
}

### This is not the case when links = 1
[root@padishah1 ansible]# cp -p --remove-destination /etc/hosts.bkp /etc/hosts
cp: overwrite `/etc/hosts'? yes
[root@padishah1 ansible]# ls -l /etc/hosts
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 13888 May 16 17:21 /etc/hosts

### Identical file is now successful (changed: false is expected)
[root@padishah1 ansible]# ansible all -i <(echo -e "localhost ansible_connection=local") -m copy -a "src=/etc/hosts.bkp dest=/etc/hosts mode=0644 owner=root group=root" --check

localhost | success >> {
    "changed": false,
    "dest": "/etc/hosts",
    "gid": 0,
    "group": "root",
    "md5sum": "0f7cc9afcb0f17a9864b45391027a6ad",
    "mode": "0644",
    "owner": "root",
    "path": "/etc/hosts",
    "secontext": "unconfined_u:object_r:etc_t:s0",
    "size": 13888,
    "state": "file",
    "uid": 0
}

[root@padishah1 ansible]# ansible all -i <(echo -e "localhost ansible_connection=local") -m copy -a "src=/etc/hosts.different dest=/etc/hosts mode=0644 owner=root group=root" --check
--- before: /etc/hosts
+++ after: /etc/hosts.different
---diff redacted---
+

localhost | success >> {
    "changed": true
}

[Michael DeHaan]

Can you please check and see if you have a problem on Ansible 1.7.2?

We can't support older versions on this list.

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[Sean McGowan]

yes.. 1.7.2 is installed now and the result is the same.  also, as an interesting aside, I apparently can no longer use bash FIFOs as an inventory file like i did in the previous example.

[Michael DeHaan]

Assuming you mean the (>$) whichever weird syntax, using fifo's as an inventory file was never really an intended thing.

Please file a bug on the hardlink issue so we can investigate.

Thanks!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/3fccca8c-63c8-41fa-8c7b-50c78d03cee0%40googlegroups.com.

[Sean McGowan]

issue #302 - ansible-modules-core

thanks!

and i never expect fifo's to work, but it is a nice shortcut when testing. :)

[senorsmile]

For those who find this same issue in the future, the error will still appear unless you add

state: file

to the copy module, as documented in here: 

https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/issues/468