blt recipes:aliases:init:acquia Erases Local Alias

[augustshultz]

My system information:

• Operating system type: macOS
• Operating system version: 10.13
• BLT version: 9.2.1

Output of blt doctor:

+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Property                  | Value                                                 |
+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| %paths.%root              | /var/www/holden/docroot                               |
| %paths.%site              | sites/default                                         |
| %paths.%modules           | sites/all/modules                                     |
| %paths.%themes            | sites/all/themes                                      |
| %paths.%config-sync       | /var/www/holden/config/default                        |
| %paths.%files             | sites/default/files                                   |
| %paths.%temp              | /tmp                                                  |
| %paths.%private           | /var/www/holden/files-private                         |
| admin-theme               | seven                                                 |
| alias-searchpaths.0       | /var/www/holden/drush/sites                           |
| blt-version               | 9.2.1                                                 |
| bootstrap                 | Successful                                            |
| composer-version          | Composer version 1.7.3 2018-11-01 10:05:06            |
| config-sync               | /var/www/holden/config/default                        |
| db-driver                 | mysql                                                 |
| db-hostname               | localhost                                             |
| db-name                   | drupal                                                |
| db-password               | drupal                                                |
| db-port                   | 3306                                                  |
| db-status                 | Connected                                             |
| db-username               | drupal                                                |
| drupal-settings-file      | sites/default/settings.php                            |
| drupal-version            | 8.6.3                                                 |
| drush-alias-files.0       | /var/www/holden/drush/sites/holden.site.yml           |
| drush-cache-directory     | /home/vagrant/.drush/cache                            |
| drush-conf.0              | /var/www/holden/vendor/drush/drush/drush.yml          |
| drush-conf.1              | /var/www/holden/drush/drush.yml                       |
| drush-conf.2              | /var/www/holden/docroot/sites/default/local.drush.yml |
| drush-script              | /var/www/holden/vendor/bin/drush                      |
| drush-temp                | /tmp                                                  |
| drush-version             | 9.5.2                                                 |
| files                     | sites/default/files                                   |
| install-profile           | lightning                                             |
| modules                   | sites/all/modules                                     |
| php-bin                   | /usr/bin/php7.1                                       |
| php-conf.0                | /etc/php/7.1/cli/php.ini                              |
| php-os                    | Linux                                                 |
| private                   | /var/www/holden/files-private                         |
| root                      | /var/www/holden/docroot                               |
| site                      | sites/default                                         |
| stacks.drupal-vm.inited   | true                                                  |
| stacks.dev-desktop.inited | false                                                 |
| temp                      | /tmp                                                  |
| theme                     | bartik                                                |
| themes                    | sites/all/themes                                      |
| uri                       | http://local.holden.com                               |
+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Check                                | Problem                                                      |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| ConfigCheck:checkGitConfig           | Git repositories are not defined in blt.yml.                 |
|                                      |   Add values for git.remotes to blt.yml to enabled automated |
|                                      | deployment.                                                  |
| NodeCheck:checkNodeVersionFileExists | Neither .nvmrc nor .node-version file found in repo root.    |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+

When I run this command:

blt recipes:aliases:init:acquia

I get the following output:

local alias is overwritten with remote aliases

And I expected this to happen:
remote aliases added to local alias

[mikemadison13]

@augustshultz i just did a test of this locally, and i have a few observations.

the command does actually provide the warning for me that File <alias.yml> already exists and will be overwritten. Continue? (y/n) y to give me the choice (so it doesn't happen blindly). This is good (in my opinion).

While we certainly could update https://github.com/acquia/blt/blob/10.0.x/src/Robo/Commands/Generate/AliasesCommand.php#L407 to pass the FILE_APPEND option into file_put_contents, my concern here is that will also cause issues with alias generation. Currently, when you run the BLT command to generate these aliases, the resulting file is "always" valid (despite nuking your local alias). If we append to the file, if you run the command back to back, you could easily wind up with an invalid alias file.

I think, while annoying that the local alias is overwritten, we must ensure that the result of recipes:aliases:init:acquia remains valid output.

Suggested Mitigations:

• have a different machine name locally than your acquia sub (not a bad practice anyway)
• commit your local alias prior to running recipes:aliases:init:acquia and then use git to merge the resulting aliases with the existing version of your file (preserving the local alias in git).

[augustshultz]

Perhaps the documentation should simply be updated. It seems odd to me that the command would render you without the ability to target your local install.

Is the suggestion to use a different local name documented somewhere? I would like to read up on that if I could.

Thanks for the response, @mikemadison13.

[mikemadison13]

@augustshultz i can make some doc updates to better clarify what we discussed here. will flag this as a doc ticket.