"command: yum clean all" warns and recommends using "warn: false" which generates an error

[justme3]

SUMMARY

When executing "command: yum clean all" Ansible generates an warning stating that the warning can be removed by using "warn: false" in the stanza. Another solution is to remove all warning by updating ansible.cfg.

When I add "warn: false" to the stanza I get the following error:

ERROR! unexpected parameter type in action: <type 'bool'>

The error appears to be in '/<path>/ansible/roles/install_test/tasks/main.yml': line 12, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:


- name: Clean up the yum cache
  ^ here

The code that is being operated on is:

name: Clean up the yum cache
  command: /bin/yum clean all
  become_user: root
  become: yes
  become_flags: '-i'
  warn: false

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

command

ANSIBLE VERSION

2.9.9

CONFIGURATION

""

No output from command

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Ansible running on RHEL 7.8.

Client is also RHEL 7.8

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Use stanza to perform a "yum clean all" and examine the warning that is generated.

[WARNING]: Consider using the yum module rather than running 'yum'.  If you need to use command because
yum is insufficient you can add 'warn: false' to this command task or set 'command_warnings=False' in
ansible.cfg to get rid of this message.

Then implement "warn: false" in the stanza and see that it errors out immediately

  command: /bin/yum clean all
  become_user: root
  become: yes
  become_flags: '-i'
  warn: false

EXPECTED RESULTS

I would expect that the warning would be suppressed

ACTUAL RESULTS

An immediate error before running any actions. This appears to be a linting error

ERROR! unexpected parameter type in action: <type 'bool'>

The error appears to be in '/h/1142352/keystone/scm/ansible/roles/install_test/tasks/main.yml': line 12, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:


- name: Clean up the yum cache
  ^ here

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/modules/command.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

[rukman7]

@justme3 the warning flag is a part of the command module. Try like this:

  command: /bin/yum clean all 
  args:
    warn: false 
  become_user: root
  become: yes
  become_flags: '-i' 

Documentation: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/command_module.html

[justme3]

@rukman7 Many thanks. Putting the warn line in as an arg works.
The Ansible documentation page for command does not distinguish between parameters to a module or args.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/command_module.html
Is there any way I can avoid this mistake in the future?

[rukman7]

@justme3 As the documentation says:

1. The command module takes the command name followed by a list of space-delimited arguments.
   if you do like like the following, you need args.
2. To create command tasks that are easier to read than the ones using space-delimited arguments, pass parameters using the args task keyword or use cmd parameter.

  command: /bin/yum clean all 
  args:
    warn: false 
  become_user: root
  become: yes
  become_flags: '-i' 

if you do like this, you don't need args.

  command: 
    cmd: /bin/yum clean all
    warn: false 
  become_user: root
  become: yes
  become_flags: '-i' 

please correct me if I am wrong.

[relrod]

Fixed by the fact that we're deprecating the command warning feature entirely in 2.11+, #70504, and removing it in 2.14.