Inconsistent format for get_jids between returners

[Lothiraldan]

I'm playing with salt-api and custom returner / master job cache and I have noticed that the runner jobs.list_jobs output's format is inconsistent.

With the default return cache (https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/develop/salt/returners/local_cache.py this one I think), the return format is this one:

$ sudo salt-run jobs.list_jobs
20141216150935816100:
    ----------
    Arguments:
    Function:
        test.ping
    StartTime:
        2014, Dec 16 15:09:35.816100
    Target:
        *
    Target-type:
        glob
    User:
        sudo_vagrant

With the mongo_future_return returner (https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/develop/salt/returners/mongo_future_return.py#L198), the output is this one:

$ sudo salt-run jobs.list_jobs
- 20141216145311725339
- 20141216145316775106
- 20141216145322743787
- 20141216145552454849
- 20141216150746364392
- 20141216150751466355

I've checked some other returners, some return list (https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/develop/salt/returners/memcache_return.py) and some others return dict (https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/develop/salt/returners/postgres_local_cache.py#L316).

What is the right format? I'm working on saltpad (https://github.com/tinyclues/saltpad) and prefer to not support multiple format.

[basepi]

So my bet here is that the different master job caches, the data is stored and retrieved differently. So I think it's actually a bug in the returners themselves, not the runner retrieving the data.

[Lothiraldan]

Yeah I don't think the runner is bugged, it basically return the output given by the master job cache. And the API just return the output of the job runner.

I doesn't cause a problem until you start using the API, it's impossible to provide a tool using the salt-api if the format change depending on the master job cache used.

I think all the returners should use the same format as the default "one" (https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/develop/salt/returners/local_cache.py) so we should maybe make it explicit in a documentation for new returners creation and fix existing returners shipped with SaltStack.

[cachedout]

I agree with what you're saying, though we may want to consider just making either a utility function or a wrapper so that returner authors don't have to reimplement the same return structure by hand each time.

[kerncore]

Hi,

There is no progress with this issue?
That issue is prevent to integrate the saltstack with 3th services, is very important to find the way for identical format return/save for returners (job_cache), may be start from (ext | master)_job_cache which introduced in 2014.7.

Thanks.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

If this issue is closed prematurely, please leave a comment and we will gladly reopen the issue.