trouble creating symbolic link

[Suraj Gupta]

hi!  I'm trying to create a symbol link using the file module example:

file src=/file/to/link/to dest=/path/to/symlink owner=foo group=foo state=link

Unfortunately, ansible-playbook gives me the following error:

failed: [127.0.0.1] => {"failed": true, "msg": "", "parsed": false}

Is there a way to dig deeper? Does parsed = false mean that the line could not be parsed?  I tried the --debug option but there was no extra output.  Let me know if I can provide more info.

Thanks!

[Cosmin Luță]

This worked for me on version 0.4:

- hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: link the stuff
    action: file src=/etc/passwd dest=/tmp/passwd state=link

What version are you using?
 

[Suraj Gupta]

I'm using the latest on the devel branch.  I switched to master and now I'm getting verbose output.  The error I see is the following:

 File "//home/suraj/.ansible/tmp/ansible.If0wX3/file", line 337, in <module>

    os.symlink(src, dest)

OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

My src and dest are paths do not point to the path above, which seems like a temp path where files are copied (as part of the ansible-playbook process?).  I'm configuring the local machine.  I'm assuming src and dest point to location on the target machine?

[Suraj Gupta]

anyone?  I'm still stuck.

[Michael DeHaan]

you may wish to debug this with the hacking/test-module script in the checkout.

[Suraj Gupta]

good suggestion - I went ahead and used test-module and everything worked fine.  The link was created as expected and src/dest pointed to the right files.  So somehow the task is failing when its run with ansible-playbook.  I reduced my playbook so that the only task is the task in question (just to eliminate any issues related to system state with prior tasks).  I still get the error below.  

I think the next logical question is what's up with the .ansible/tmp/ file path in the error message?

[Michael DeHaan]

ok, thanks…that seems indicate there is something up in the handoff to the file module in runner/__init__.py

If you can paste the most minimal playbook that can repro this with the exact command line used in a github ticket I can take a look.

[Suraj Gupta]

done!

[Michael DeHaan]

So the thing I found here was that the code to print error messages in
the file module was not quoting strings with spaces in them, leading
to parse errors.

This was done such that the file module could be used without
requiring Python, which allows very basic ansible things
(copy/template) to be run without having python-simplejson installed,
such that you can boostrap ansible to install python-simplejson even
if it means installing a yum config file. (Yeah, corner case, I
know...but useful).

Anyway, I have fixed this such that if you try to run this again, you
should now get proper output.

The test-module script in the "hacking" directory is VERY useful for
testing modules outside of playbooks and the rest of the framework, if
folks are interested in ansible I recommend trying it.

[Suraj Gupta]

Hi Michael,

Unfortunately this still doesn't work. I'm cloning the devel branch.  With test-module it works fine, but when I try to create the link via ansible-playbook, I get a failure message.  With --debug there is no verbose output as there is with the master branch version.  Maybe the first step here is to get --debug to generate more info?  Is that something you can fix on devel?

-Suraj

On Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:28:21 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

So the thing I found here was that the code to print error messages in
the file module was not quoting strings with spaces in them, leading
to parse errors.

This was done such that the file module could be used without
requiring Python, which allows very basic ansible things
(copy/template) to be run without having python-simplejson installed,
such that you can boostrap ansible to install python-simplejson even
if it means installing a yum config file.  (Yeah, corner case, I
know...but useful).

Anyway, I have fixed this such that if you try to run this again, you
should now get proper output.

The test-module script in the "hacking" directory is VERY useful for
testing modules outside of playbooks and the rest of the framework, if
folks are interested in ansible I recommend trying it.

[Michael DeHaan]

-- Michael

On Jun 3, 2012, at 10:52 AM, Suraj Gupta <sur...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Michael,

Unfortunately this still doesn't work. I'm cloning the devel branch.  With test-module it works fine, but when I try to create the link via ansible-playbook, I get a failure message.  With --debug there is no verbose output as there is with the master branch version.  Maybe the first step here is to get --debug to generate more info?  Is that something you can fix on devel?

--debug is going away.  --verbose will show returns even on success.

What error are you getting now?

[Suraj Gupta]

Without debug/verbose the error is:

failed: [127.0.0.1] => {"failed": true, "msg", "", "parsed": false}

with --verbose:

error: no such option: --verbose

=)

On Sunday, June 3, 2012 10:54:42 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

-- Michael

[Michael DeHaan]

Latest devel or not?

-- Michael

[Suraj Gupta]

latest devel

On Monday, June 4, 2012 6:33:27 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

Latest devel or not?

-- Michael

[Michael DeHaan]

Ok, failed to parse should always show the trace, no flags required.  Make sure there is a open ticket.

-- Michael

[Suraj Gupta]

created issue 449

On Monday, June 4, 2012 10:09:20 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

Ok, failed to parse should always show the trace, no flags required.  Make sure there is a open ticket.

-- Michael

[Michael DeHaan]

Thanks, should be fixed by early next week.   Meanwhile I recommend using hacking/test-module to find your symlink error, so we can resolve that also.  This way you can find the actual TB we are currently not presenting.

-- Michael

[Suraj Gupta]

Hi Michael - There is no error when using test-module.  The link is created properly.  That's what's strange.

On Monday, June 4, 2012 10:56:31 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

Thanks, should be fixed by early next week.   Meanwhile I recommend using hacking/test-module to find your symlink error, so we can resolve that also.  This way you can find the actual TB we are currently not presenting.

-- Michael

[Suraj Gupta]

so I think we should reopen issue 439.  I tried but I don't have permission

[Michael DeHaan]

There was no error for me so I am afraid you will need to patch it yourself...

-- Michael

[Suraj Gupta]

I'll try after issue 449 is fixed.

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 5:05:52 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:

There was no error for me so I am afraid you will need to patch it yourself...

-- Michael

[Lylian meye-mezu]

Has this issue been corrected ?

I'm using Ansible 1.9.4 et still cannot create a symlink.

[Lylian meye-mezu]

Oups..

It works fine.

Sorry for annoyance.

Regards

Le mercredi 6 juin 2012 20:10:56 UTC+2, Suraj Gupta a écrit :