--diff flag stopped producing the diff from file module

[AlanCoding]

SUMMARY

In recent release candidates the --diff option stopped working (meaning that it became non-functional), this was tested for the file module.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

ansible-playbook CLI
--diff CLI option

ANSIBLE VERSION

tested and confirmed bug in environments:

ansible --version
ansible 2.7.0.dev0
  config file = None
  configured module search path = [u'/Users/alancoding/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /Users/alancoding/.virtualenvs/ansible/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible-2.7.0.dev0-py2.7.egg/ansible
  executable location = /Users/alancoding/.virtualenvs/ansible/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.11 (default, Oct 17 2016, 14:59:40) [GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.0.2 (clang-700.1.81)]

ansible --version
ansible 2.6.0rc3
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.5 (default, Apr 11 2018, 07:36:10) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-28)]

CONFIGURATION

No output from ansible-config dump --only-changed

OS / ENVIRONMENT

tested as local action in CentOS container

cat /proc/version
Linux version 4.9.87-linuxkit-aufs (root@95fa5ec30613) (gcc version 6.4.0 (Alpine 6.4.0) ) #1 SMP Wed Mar 14 15:12:16 UTC 2018

installed via

rpm -Uvh https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/rpm/preview/epel-7-x86_64/ansible-2.6.0-0.1003.rc3.el7.ans.noarch.rpm

Also confirmed on Mac

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

playbook, file.yml

---

- hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    file_name: '/tmp/test'
  tasks:
    - file:
        path: '{{file_name}}'
        state: touch

command:

ansible-playbook -i localhost, --connection local file.yml --diff

EXPECTED RESULTS

Result from 2.5.3

PLAY [all] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [file] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
--- before
+++ after
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
     "path": "/tmp/test",
-    "state": "file"
+    "state": "touch"
 }

changed: [localhost]

PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0 

ACTUAL RESULTS

PLAY [all] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [file] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]

PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0   

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/playbook

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

[AlanCoding]

Source of the playbook https://github.com/jlaska/ansible-playbooks/blob/master/file.yml

@wenottingham this is a blocker for Tower, and has been seen in test systems.

I first thought this was the same as #34226, but has 2.4 on it, and it was working as of 2.5, so that makes it a recent regression, and the module is different anyway.

[sivel]

This was introduced in 4e2876b

cc @abadger

[AlanCoding]

@abadger I confirmed that installing from current devel fixes the test that discovered this. With the 2.6 backport, that will resolve this completely. That was crazy fast, you are awesome!