Empty hosts declaration in YAML inventory causes partial fallback to INI parsing

[wfaulk]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

inventory

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible 2.4.2.0
  config file = None
  configured module search path = [u'/Users/wfaulk/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.4.2.0_2/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.10 (default, Feb  7 2017, 00:08:15) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.34)]

CONFIGURATION

default environment, no config or envvars

OS / ENVIRONMENT

running from MacOS 10.12.6
managing N/A

SUMMARY

YAML inventories where a group contains a "hosts:" group, but no hosts exist inside the group cause ansible to interpret the file partially as just a list of hosts, without warning.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Running ansible all --list-hosts against the following inventory file lists 10 hosts, when it should only list 3.

all:
  hosts:
    host1:
  children:
    group1:
      hosts:
      children:
        group1a:
          hosts:
            host2:
    group2:
      hosts:
        host3:

Note that "group1" contains a "hosts" entry, but there are no hosts listed. If you delete that line, the inventory file works correctly.

EXPECTED RESULTS

  hosts (3):
    host2
    host3
    host1

ACTUAL RESULTS

ansible 2.4.2.0
  config file = None
  configured module search path = [u'/Users/wfaulk/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/2.4.2.0_2/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.10 (default, Feb  7 2017, 00:08:15) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.34)]
No config file found; using defaults
Parsed <redacted>/bug1.yml inventory source with ini plugin
  hosts (10):
    all:
    hosts:
    host1:
    children:
    group1:
    group1a:
    host2:
    group2:
    host3:
    host1

Note that, somehow, both "host1" and "host1:" are included, which seems to indicate that it's somehow parsing it as YAML and as INI.

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/inventory

If these files are inaccurate, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[mkrizek]

cc @bcoca

[SethosII]

This also affects 2.5.

$ cat hosts.yaml 
a:
  hosts:
    ubuntu-server:
b:
  hosts:
  children:
    a:
$ git clone https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git
$ cd ansible/
$ source ./hacking/env-setup
$ ansible --version
ansible 2.5.0 (devel 663c410da4) last updated 2018/02/08 07:28:30 (GMT +200)
  config file = /home/itadmin/.ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/home/itadmin/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /dev/shm/ansible/lib/ansible
  executable location = /dev/shm/ansible/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.12 (default, Dec  4 2017, 14:50:18) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]
$ ansible -i ../hosts.yaml -u user -m ping all
b: | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false, 
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname b:: Temporary failure in name resolution\r\n", 
    "unreachable": true
}
ubuntu-server: | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false, 
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname ubuntu-server:: Temporary failure in name resolution\r\n", 
    "unreachable": true
}
children: | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false, 
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname children:: Temporary failure in name resolution\r\n", 
    "unreachable": true
}
a: | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false, 
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname a:: Temporary failure in name resolution\r\n", 
    "unreachable": true
}
hosts: | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false, 
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: Could not resolve hostname hosts:: Temporary failure in name resolution\r\n", 
    "unreachable": true
}
ubuntu-server | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false, 
    "failed": false, 
    "ping": "pong"
}

[pandatk]

Can confirm the issue is still there in 2.6.4

[corbinstuard]

Can confirm the issue still exists in 2.7.5

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/openstack.py

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[ansibot]

Thank you very much for your interest in Ansible. Ansible has migrated much of the content into separate repositories to allow for more rapid, independent development. We are closing this issue/PR because this content has been moved to one or more collection repositories.

• lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/openstack.py -> https://galaxy.ansible.com/openstack/cloud

For further information, please see:
https://github.com/ansible/ansibullbot/blob/master/docs/collection_migration.md

[mkrizek]

!component =lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/yaml.py

[mkrizek]

!needs_collection_redirect

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/plugins/inventory/yaml.py

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[bcoca]

fixed via #45499 and #48883
included in 2.8 and newer versions.