osx_defaults: refactor to use Foundation/CoreFoudation python modules instead of defaults command, adding a lot of new features at the same time (nested keys and values, support for all types, etc.)

[etienned]

SUMMARY

Update of the osx_defaults module to use Foundation / CoreFoudation python modules instead of the defaults command. The goal is to add new features and those features were not possible using the defaults command. New features are:

• Access to nested keys and indexes (ex.: DesktopViewSettings -> IconViewSettings -> arrangeBy).
• Writing nested and complex values (ex.: [1, {key1: 'text', key2: true}, 'other stuff']).
• Support for all data types: array, boolean, data, date, dict, float, integer, string.
• Support to access preferences for any users (like network settings, etc.).
• Specifying type is now optional. Types are mostly deduce as YAML/Ansible do.

Those changes should be backwards compatible.

Also this update fixes some issues that are present in the current implementation (array_add not keeping items order, etc.).

Code cleanup to adhere to Ansible's guidelines.

Not python 3 compatible for the moment. But in most case Foundation / CoreFoundation modules runs under the stock macOS' python and it's currently version 2.7. It should not be too hard to add support for python 3 after the module will be tested for some time in the wild.

The new version of the module is built in way that it could be relatively easy to add other backends like defaults and PlistBuddy commands. It could be possible to automatically fallback to another backend (ex. using defaults, so module will have with limited functionalities) if Foundation can't be imported. I don't know if it's a good or a bad idea.

ISSUE TYPE

• Feature Pull Request

COMPONENT NAME

osx_defaults

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible 2.4.0 (devel da99deeddc) last updated 2017/05/18 22:45:57 (GMT -400)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

I know there's already at least one other pull request (like this one) for an updated version of osx_defaults but I think this version is more complete. I started to work on this a long time ago after I submit a fix for a bug. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to work on it. I also did many iterations, first one was using PlistBuddy.

I did a mostly complete test suite for the main class (CFPreferences) but unfortunately at the time I start it there was no official way to test modules. Also it was not possible to import something, like a class, from an Ansible module. So my test suite is built on pytest and the class is simply copied in the test file. That's not really pretty. You can find it here. If there's a relatively simple way to integrate this test suite to Ansible, tell me. I also have a test playbook that cover most combinations here.

I would like also to mention that I had to circumvent some inconsistent Ansible behaviors, particularly on how Ansible cast types in YAML, as this module use YAML structure and types intensively. I know there's some work that is done on that side currently and it's a good thing. I hit some limitations of JSON: no support for datetime and for data. That's one of the reason that datetime should always be quoted for this module. Maybe a kind of support for those types could be added directly to Ansible in the future.

I tried to document the code correctly but if you have any interrogations just ask.

[booch]

This rewrite has everything I've dreamed of for the osx_defaults module, and more. There are a lot of situations where I still need to fall back to using the defaults command. This rewrite resolves them all. Very nicely done! I'd really like to see this go into 2.5 ASAP.

[booch]

So what's the process for getting this included in the Ansible 2.5 release? What can we do to help the process along?

[etienned]

@kinglouie I've checked your tests in your PR and it's pretty clear. Thanks!

[dagwieers]

@etienned Can you check which of the existing open osx_defaults issues your refactor would solve ? We could ask those reporters to test if you branch fixes their issue as well.

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+osx_defaults

[ansibot]

cc @kyleabenson
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[ansibot]

cc @Akasurde @chris-short
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[jamesdh]

Just bumped into a need for this today. Please don't let this die like #24028 did :(

[etienned]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty busy right now but I'm not forgetting it!

[ansibot]

cc @martinm82
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[kinglouie]

I would be really glad if this could get the attention it deserves. I'm really grateful for the effort you put into this @etienned but I think with the limited time you can offer to support this PR it would be beneficial for everyone who wants to use this, if you could approve that someone else finishes this. It's already 1,5 years later after I pushed an adaption of this PR because at the time it was already stale in here.

[dsedivec]

This looks like a big improvement upon the existing osx_defaults module, thanks!

One possible problem: Consider domain com.apple.symbolichotkeys, key AppleSymbolicHotKeys, which is a dict with ints as keys:

{
    AppleSymbolicHotKeys =     {
        32 =         {
            enabled = 1;
            value =             {
                parameters =                 (
                    65535,
                    126,
                    262144
                );
                type = standard;
            };
        };
};

Trying to one of the keys of AppleSymbolicHotKeys with something like key="AppleSymbolicHotKeys:32" results in an error like:

Type mismatch between the key `32` and the node `{...long value...}` (<type 'list'> -> <type 'dict'>).

I believe this module thinks the integer key means it should expect a list, which is not true in this case.

[Akasurde]

Hi @etienned, Thank you very much for your interest in Ansible. This plugin/module is no longer maintained in this repository and has been migrated to https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general

If you have further questions please stop by IRC or the mailing list:

* IRC: #ansible on irc.freenode.net
* mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-project

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