Copy/Template modules inconsistency

[resmo]

Proposal: Make copy/template modules more consistent

Author: René Moser <@resmo> IRC: resmo

Date: 2024-10-08

• Status: New
• Proposal type: core module
• Targeted release: ?

Motivation

I noticed an inconsistency when using --check mode with the copy (and template) module.

Returns are not returned in check mode if changed=true on an update scenario.
Docs for copy's returns mentions returned on: success.

Problems

we have an existing file on the target, we verify with --check, changed=False returned
--> returns looks as expected.

 $ ansible -m copy -a 'src=dummy.txt dest=/tmp/dummy.txt' demo-web1 --check 
demo-web1 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "checksum": "0fb00cb451fba290ac6c613cdaaf0a687145c752",
    "dest": "/tmp/dummy.txt",
    "gid": 0,
    "group": "root",
    "mode": "0644",
    "owner": "root",
    "path": "/tmp/dummy.txt",
    "size": 22,
    "state": "file",
    "uid": 0
}

Then we make some changes:

$ echo "some changes" >> dummy.txt

Run again with --check, this time we have changed=true as expected but no other returns?

$ ansible -m copy -a 'src=dummy.txt dest=/tmp/dummy.txt' demo-web1 --check 
demo-web1 | CHANGED => {
    "changed": true
}

I would have expected returns, because there is an existing file.

Solution proposal

• always return keys, also in check mode.
• scenario create in check mode: return with none (N/A?) values
• scenario update in check mode: return with values of existing, non-modified file