apt module to first check for locks, then act accordingly

[Xophmeister]

SUMMARY

An apt task will fail with the usual apt error message if apt is already running on a particular host. apt is often scheduled to run by, e.g., systemd or cron. The error that it spits out is a bit scary, but all you need to do is wait a few minutes for the previous apt invocation to finish. It would be nice if the apt module handled this for you automatically. That is:

• Check for any apt locks and currently running apt processes
• If there are any, either bailout, or try again after waiting -- perhaps this could be parametrised, somehow
• If, after some maximum number of failures, report back to the user that apt is locked on the host and maybe some kind of manual intervention is required

ISSUE TYPE

• Feature Idea

COMPONENT NAME

apt module

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Running apt processes on hosts are invisible to those running the orchestration (whether they're human or CI pipelines); e.g. #51663. If the output was more appropriate, it would avoid end user confusion.

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/modules/packaging/os/apt.py

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

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[ansibot]

cc @mgwilliams
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[Xophmeister]

See also https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=754103, which is a feature request to fix this upstream.

[tomwassenberg]

This looks like a duplicate of #25414.

[bcoca]

closing as dupe of #25414