Extension suggests replacements of modules with internal implentation names

[C0rn3j]

Sanity check

• I certify that the redhat.ansible extension is in use and the language of the document in this bug report shows up as Ansible

Summary

Here's my main.yaml

- name: Clone/Update Guard git repo
  ansible.builtin.git:
    repo: 'https://github.com/thedevs-network/the-guard-bot.git'
    dest: /opt/the-guard-bot
    update: true

- name: Install npm
  community.general.pacman:
    name: npm
    state: present

- name: Install packages based on package.json.
  community.general.npm:
    path: /opt/the-guard-bot

running ansible-lint against it I get the following

% ansible-lint main.yaml                                                         
WARNING  Listing 1 violation(s) that are fatal
git-latest: Git checkouts must contain explicit version.
main.yaml:8 Task/Handler: Clone/Update Guard git repo

You can skip specific rules or tags by adding them to your configuration file:
# .config/ansible-lint.yml
warn_list:  # or 'skip_list' to silence them completely
  - git-latest  # Git checkouts must contain explicit version.

Finished with 1 failure(s), 0 warning(s) on 1 files.

That is fine.

However, in VSC, if I hover over community.general.pacman or community.general.npm, I get suggestions to replace them.

Use community.general.packaging.os.pacman instead.
Use community.general.packaging.language.npm instead.

The only place where I can find these mentioned is https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/blob/main/meta/runtime.yml#L1102

After talking with one of the community.general contributors on Matrix, it seems like it shouldn't be a thing and is a bug

felixfontein:
  actually doing that replacement would be a REALLY BAD idea.
  community.general.packaging.os.pacman is an implementation detail that can change even in a bugfix release and leave you with something that isn't working
  you should definitely file a bug report for the plugin

Extension version

0.11.10

VS Code version

1.69.2

Ansible Version

ansible [core 2.13.2]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/c0rn3j/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/c0rn3j/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.10.5 (main, Jun  6 2022, 18:49:26) [GCC 12.1.0]
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True

OS / Environment

Arch Linux
ansible-lint 6.3.0-1

Relevant log output

No response

[felixfontein]

This is really problematic since these internal names should not be exposed to users, and must really not be used.

One problem with redirects is that it is totally unclear which redirects should be suggested to users and which ones should not. If the source is deprecated, or the redirect is deprecated, it definitely should. But if the redirect is not, it depends a lot. The redirect community.general.docker_container → community.docker.docker_container should be suggested, a redirect community.general.foo → community.general.bar as well. But a redirect community.general.foo → community.general.something.foo? This depends on the collection (in case of community.general: no).

Maybe we should add a new attribute private_redirect for meta/runtime.yml, like this:

plugin_routing:
  modules:
    aerospike_migrations:
      redirect: community.general.database.aerospike.aerospike_migrations
      private_redirect: true

ansible-core will ignore this (except the sanity tests), but the VSCode plugin could use this flag to not suggest this redirect.

[felixfontein]

This is probably more a bug in https://github.com/ansible/ansible-language-server since all the code that does something is in there. @ssbarnea does it makes sense to create a new issue there, or should this issue be moved over to that repo, or something else?

[ssbarnea]

@ganeshrn @priyamsahoo ^

[felixfontein]

@ganeshrn @priyamsahoo any update on this? From my point of view this is a pretty critical bug that should be fixed as soon as possible.

[priyamsahoo]

Sorry for the delay.
We will discuss this and let you know the solution/ decision.

[Igorgro]

@priyamsahoo Is there any new info? I've found that the modules which are affected by this issue also does not provide autocompletion:

[felixfontein]

Some updated would be great indeed. This is a very serious bug that has been around for at least two months now.

[felixfontein]

I created an ansible-lint rule which flags the invalid actions generated: ansible/ansible-lint#2572

[priyamsahoo]

Thanks for creating a rule in lint.
We are still trying to work this out, as we are not sure if it is a bug or not. If it is, we need to have filters before providing redirects.

[felixfontein]

@priyamsahoo by not treating this as a bug you are risking that your uses will suffer a lot when they have to undo all these suggestions.

[priyamsahoo]

@felixfontein, I meant to say 'security bug'.
BTW, we are having a discussion on this, and this issue will not be closed until we come to a conclusion as to what must be done here.

[ganeshrn]

There is a similar issue raised on ansible-language-server and a PR to fix it. Please refer ansible/ansible-language-server#449

[ganeshrn]

Some updated would be great indeed. This is a very serious bug that has been around for at least two months now.

@felixfontein
Sorry for the delayed response. As you rightly pointed out in your earlier comment the code changes for this PR will be in ansible-language-server repository. However we can keep this issue open to track the extension release with the fix in ALS