Exception raised when processing __virtual__ function for mac_system - (mac os x installation relies on un-installed 'mac_service_helper.sh')

[TheBigBear]

Installed the new mac os x pkg 2016.3.1 from repo.saltstack.com when trying to do any pkg.* related cmds it comes up with a few lines of error output that are not really related to salt.

salt-call pkg.list_pkgs
[ERROR   ] Command '/usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 -o - -- "/Library/LaunchDaemons/.com.bomgar.bomgar-ps-5370CFCC-1399963037.helper/mac_service_helper.sh"' failed with return code: 1
[ERROR   ] output: /Library/LaunchDaemons/.com.bomgar.bomgar-ps-5370CFCC-1399963037.helper/mac_service_helper.sh: Property List error: Unexpected character # at line 1 / JSON error: JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set.
[ERROR   ] Exception raised when processing __virtual__ function for mac_system. Module will not be loaded not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0
[WARNING ] salt.loaded.int.module.mac_system.__virtual__() is wrongly returning `None`. It should either return `True`, `False` or a new name. If you're the developer of the module 'mac_system', please fix this.
local:
    ----------
    ansible:
        2.1.0.0

(Note: it does actually proceed to do the requested pkg. action, but the errors need looking at and removing.)

salt errors and warning:

[ERROR   ] Exception raised when processing __virtual__ function for mac_system. Module will not be loaded not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 0
[WARNING ] salt.loaded.int.module.mac_system.__virtual__() is wrongly returning `None`. It should either return `True`, `False` or a new name. If you're the developer of the module 'mac_system', please fix this.

I think "some" helper function somewhere inside of salt tries reading and interpreting a file called 'mac_service_helper.sh' but the current installer pkg does not install a file by that name that I can find.

However our Mac s have a remote support agent installed that has such a file on the disk by default.

As can be seen by:

locate mac_service_helper.sh

/Library/LaunchDaemons/.com.bomgar.bomgar-ps-5478B13B-1466047527.helper/mac_service_helper.sh
/Users/Shared/bomgar-scc-20141128-173035.app/Contents/Resources/mac_service_helper.sh

Versions Report

(Provided by running salt --versions-report. Please also mention any differences in master/minion versions.)
Master: 2016.3.2
mac os x minion: 2016.3.1
Salt Version:
Salt: 2016.3.1

Dependency Versions:
cffi: 1.5.0
cherrypy: 4.0.0
dateutil: 2.4.2
gitdb: 0.6.4
gitpython: 1.0.1
ioflo: 1.5.0
Jinja2: 2.8
libgit2: Not Installed
libnacl: 1.4.4
M2Crypto: Not Installed
Mako: 1.0.3
msgpack-pure: Not Installed
msgpack-python: 0.4.7
mysql-python: Not Installed
pycparser: 2.14
pycrypto: 2.6.1
pygit2: Not Installed
Python: 2.7.12 (default, Jul 6 2016, 14:58:59)
python-gnupg: 0.3.8
PyYAML: 3.11
PyZMQ: 15.2.0
RAET: 0.6.5
smmap: 0.9.0
timelib: 0.2.4
Tornado: 4.3
ZMQ: 4.1.2

System Versions:
dist:
machine: x86_64
release: 15.6.0
system: Darwin
version: 10.11.6 x86_64

[Ch3LL]

hmmm okay looking at this code here I believe is where its attempting to read that file.

It seems from the code that it is trying to read plist files. I am not familiar with macosx so from a quick google search it seems these are just configuration files or preferences files for software. It seems this code is attempting to read those files to gather a list of available services.

ping @twangboy is it maybe a better approach to look for the .plist extension. Seems that might resolve this issue, but not certain.

[cachedout]

@twangboy Can we get this fixed please?

[twangboy]

@TheBigBear Are you using Brew or MacPorts?