Implementation error for type bool when writing custom Ansible module - ansible

Question

I'm trying to write a custom module in Ansible 2.3 to use in my playbook. The details of it has been abstracted to run a minimal date command below, but I'm developing a much complicated example.
[dev#foobar Gist]$ tree ansible_version_err/
ansible_version_err/
├── dev_command.yml
└── library
└── dev_command.py
The contents of the library file is using the ansible.module package to implement the custom command.
#!/usr/bin/python
from ansible.module_utils.basic import *
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
import time
if __name__ == '__main__':
module = AnsibleModule(
argument_spec={
'command': { 'type':'str', 'required': True },
'print_elapsed': { 'type':bool, 'required': False },
'print_time': { 'type':bool, 'required': False } } )
stdout = None
stderr = None
rc = None
try:
time_start = time.time()
proc = Popen( module.params['command'], shell = True)
stdout, stderr = proc.communicate()
time_end = time.time()
rc = proc.returncode
if rc != 0:
raise Exception("error while obtaining date")
time_elapsed = time_end - time_start
if 'print_elapsed' in module.params and module.params['print_elapsed']:
stdout = stdout + "\nelapsed time: " + str(time_elapsed)
if 'print_time' in module.params and module.params['print_time']:
stdout = stderr + "\ntime: " + time.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ', time.gmtime(time_start))
module.exit_json( changed = False, stdout = stdout, stderr = stderr, rc = rc, time_elapsed = time_elapsed )
except Exception:
pass
and the .yml file using this dev_command is called as
---
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: testing a custom command
vars:
print_stdout: True
dev_command: command="{{cmd}}" print_elapsed=True print_time=True
I'm just calling the cmd with date which will go ahead and run the date command.
ansible-playbook dev_command.yml -vvv -e "cmd=date"
While I expect this work on Ansible 2.3, it is throwing me an error as
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"failed": true,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"command": "date",
"print_elapsed": "True",
"print_time": "True"
}
},
"msg": "implementation error: unknown type <type 'bool'> requested for print_time"
}
This error is not seen in v2.6. Why is this happening? Is this a known Ansible feature bug that can only be resolved by moving to a newer version. Version details
$ ansible --version
ansible 2.3.0.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = Default w/o overrides
python version = 2.7.5 (default, Nov 6 2016, 00:28:07) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-11)]

Answer 1

Q: "On Ansible 2.3, it is throwing me an error ... This error is not seen in v2.6. Why is this happening? Is this a known Ansible feature bug that can only be resolved by moving to a newer version?"
A: Yes. It's necessary to move to a maintained version. Even if it was a known problem it wouldn't be fixed anymore. Ansible Release cycle says:
"Ansible has a graduated maintenance structure that extends to three major releases ... we strongly encourage you to upgrade as soon as possible ..."
The latest Ansible version is 2.9 at the moment. The last maintained version is 2.7 at the moment.
FWIW. The command
$ grep -r type /scratch/ansible/lib/ansible/modules/ | grep bool | grep defaul
shows all modules declare the type Boolean with quotation
type='bool'
or
'type': 'bool'