Change default of TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS from 'never' to 'ignore'

[geerlingguy]

SUMMARY

After the long and drawn out issue ansible/ansible-documentation#89 was mostly concluded by un-deprecating dashes in group names, I noticed that my Ansible installations are still spitting out warnings by default when using inventory plugins that build group names based on things like AWS regions.

[WARNING]: Invalid characters were found in group names but not replaced, use -vvvv to see details

I propose that the default for TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS be changed from 'never' to 'ignore'.

It's also unclear to me what value there is in having a 'never' option, since it just does nothing of substance... and then spits out a warning? It seems like a scary message indicating something could break if I ignore it, but nothing does break, so I wonder what's the point of displaying the message?

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

lib/ansible/inventory/group.py

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible 2.9.10
  config file = /Users/jgeerling/Development/GitHub/ansible-for-devops/lamp-infrastructure/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/Users/jgeerling/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.7.7 (default, Apr  9 2020, 17:13:06) [Clang 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.29)]

CONFIGURATION

ANSIBLE_NOCOWS(/Users/jgeerling/Development/GitHub/ansible-for-devops/lamp-infrastructure/ansible.cfg) = True
DEFAULT_ROLES_PATH(/Users/jgeerling/Development/GitHub/ansible-for-devops/lamp-infrastructure/ansible.cfg) = ['/Users/jg
HOST_KEY_CHECKING(/Users/jgeerling/Development/GitHub/ansible-for-devops/lamp-infrastructure/ansible.cfg) = False
RETRY_FILES_ENABLED(/Users/jgeerling/Development/GitHub/ansible-for-devops/lamp-infrastructure/ansible.cfg) = False

OS / ENVIRONMENT

macOS 10.15.5.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

inventory.ini contents:

[my-hosts]
127.0.0.1 ansible_connection=local

main.yml contents:

- hosts: my-hosts
  tasks:
    - meta: noop

Run the playbook with:

EXPECTED RESULTS

No warnings appear.

ACTUAL RESULTS

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini main.yml 
[WARNING]: Invalid characters were found in group names but not replaced, use -vvvv to see details

PLAY [my-hosts] *******************************************
...

When I run with -vvvv it says:

Not replacing invalid character(s) "{'-'}" in group name (my-hosts)

But I'm not sure how that's actionable or why it matters enough to throw a warning.

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

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

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[geerlingguy]

!component =lib/ansible/inventory/group.py

[jamescassell]

I support this change.

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• ``

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[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/inventory/group.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

[sivel]

This horse has been beat to something that no longer looks like a horse. We've discussed this again in our triage meeting, and we believe that the current configuration addresses both sides of this concern. However neither side is necessarily 100% happy with the outcome. I believe we have concluded the zero-sum game here.

We warn to let users know they may have issues with invalid chars, but we don't implicitly modify those entries any longer.

[bcoca]

closing as per above.