Invalid write_files format doesn't make the cloud-init fail

[ubuntu-server-builder]

This bug was originally filed in Launchpad as LP: #1867933

Launchpad details

affected_projects = []
assignee = None
assignee_name = None
date_closed = None
date_created = 2020-03-18T14:25:16.396575+00:00
date_fix_committed = None
date_fix_released = None
id = 1867933
importance = medium
is_complete = False
lp_url = https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1867933
milestone = None
owner = boillodmanuel
owner_name = manuel
private = False
status = confirmed
submitter = boillodmanuel
submitter_name = manuel
tags = []
duplicates = []

Launchpad user manuel(boillodmanuel) wrote on 2020-03-18T14:25:16.396575+00:00

If the cloud config file format is not correct (see example below), the write_files module fails, but the cloud-init status is done

Cloud-config file:

#cloud-config

write_files:
  - content: |
      line below is badly indented
ouch!

    path: /tmp/cloud-init-file.txt

Extract of cloud-init-output.log

2020-03-18 13:54:05,321 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed loading yaml blob. Invalid format at line 6 column 1: "while scanning a simple key
  in "<unicode string>", line 6, column 1:
    ouch!
    ^
could not found expected ':'
  in "<unicode string>", line 8, column 9:
        path: /tmp/cloud-init-file.txt
            ^"
2020-03-18 13:54:05,337 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed loading yaml blob. Invalid format at line 6 column 1: "while scanning a simple key
  in "<unicode string>", line 6, column 1:
    ouch!
    ^
could not found expected ':'
  in "<unicode string>", line 8, column 9:
        path: /tmp/cloud-init-file.txt
            ^"
2020-03-18 13:54:05,337 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed at merging in cloud config part from part-001

cloud-init status:

status: done

[ubuntu-server-builder]

Launchpad user Scott Moser(smoser) wrote on 2020-03-18T15:35:51.262288+00:00

reproduces with:

$ cat ud.yaml
#cloud-config
runcmd:

• "echo hi world | tee /run/runcmd.log"
• "echo this is indented one space more, making bad yaml"

$ ud=$(cat ud.yaml)
$ lxc launch ubuntu-daily:bionic btest --config=user.user-data="$ud"

$ lxc exec btest -- cloud-init status --wait ; echo $?
status: done
0

$ lxc exec btest /bin/bash
root@btest:# grep WARN /var/log/cloud-init.log
2020-03-18 15:31:29,490 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed loading yaml blob. Invalid format at line 2 column 1: "while parsing a block mapping
2020-03-18 15:31:29,499 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed loading yaml blob. Invalid format at line 2 column 1: "while parsing a block mapping
2020-03-18 15:31:29,499 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed at merging in cloud config part from part-001
root@btest:# grep errors /run/cloud-init/result.json
"errors": []
root@btest:~# grep errors /run/cloud-init/status.json
"errors": [],
"errors": [],
"errors": [],
"errors": [],
"errors": [],

[ubuntu-server-builder]

Launchpad user Scott Moser(smoser) wrote on 2020-09-10T17:58:16.464716+00:00

Just verified this is still present (focal)

cloud-init --version

/usr/bin/cloud-init 20.2-45-g5f7825e2-0ubuntu1~20.04.1