Re: [PATCH] ansible_cfg: template boolean defaults must be "False"

[Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>]

On 4/16/25 11:48 AM, Daniel Gomez wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Apr 2025 at 15.41, <cel@kernel.org <mailto:cel@kernel.org>>
> wrote:
> 
>     From: Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com
>     <mailto:chuck.lever@oracle.com>>
> 
>     I found that the "disable_skipped_hosts" Kconfig setting was not
>     working.
> 
>     Using "output yaml" with a boolean behaves somewhat counter-
>     intuitively. When the user specifies "Yes, please set this", the
>     variable appears in .extra_vars_auto.yaml with a value of True.
>     When the user specifies "No, please do not set this" the variable
>     does not appear in .extra_vars_auto.yaml at all.
> 
> 
> This is a good catch. Does this issue affect other playbooks?

Whenever Kconfig passes a boolean setting via "output yaml", we might
have this issue. The "False" value has to be provided by a Makefile or a
defaults/main.yml setting.

My recent terraform patches removed the Ansible defaults except for the
booleans for this very reason (see
playbooks/roles/gen_tfvars/defaults/main.yml).

I haven't looked closely for it outside of terraform/ however. The
defaults/main.yml treatment is pervasive, so I just go with that flow
and make a mental adjustment ;-)


>     To make a template that uses these variables behave correctly, then,
>     the defaults/main.yml setting has to be False always. When the
>     Kconfig setting is enabled, that will override this default.
> 
> 
> It seems counterintuitive too to default to False only to ensure it can
> be overwritten. Perhaps we could fix this in kconfig/yaml? If we can
> rely on kconfig defaults, we might even be able to remove playbook
> defaults as we talked recently (not only here but globally).
> 
> What do you think?

I guess that is indeed an option, since the YAML output logic is only in
kdevops' version of Kconfig?

But I think this arises from Kconfig itself: For booleans, the setting
is written into .config as either "CONFIG_YADA=y" or "# CONFIG_YADA is
not set" probably because CONFIG_YADA can be checked via "#ifdef"; not
defined inherently means "false".

Yes, I agree it is something that is likely to trip up developers again,
and it makes sense that "output yaml" should always define the Ansible/
YAML version of the variable whether it is set to True or False.


>     Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com
>     <mailto:chuck.lever@oracle.com>>
>     ---
>      playbooks/roles/ansible_cfg/defaults/main.yml | 10 +++++-----
>      1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
>     diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ansible_cfg/defaults/main.yml b/
>     playbooks/roles/ansible_cfg/defaults/main.yml
>     index e01de2f4481d..4ff00c18976d 100644
>     --- a/playbooks/roles/ansible_cfg/defaults/main.yml
>     +++ b/playbooks/roles/ansible_cfg/defaults/main.yml
>     @@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
>      ---
>     -ansible_cfg_deprecation_warnings: true
>     +ansible_cfg_deprecation_warnings: false
>      ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_string: dense
>      ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_check_mode_markers: false
>      ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_display_failed_stderr: false
>     -ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_display_ok_hosts: true
>     -ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_display_skipped_hosts: true
>     +ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_display_ok_hosts: false
>     +ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_display_skipped_hosts: false
>      ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_show_custom_stats: false
>     -ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_show_per_host_start: true
>     -ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_show_task_path_on_failure: true
>     +ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_show_per_host_start: false
>     +ansible_cfg_callback_plugin_show_task_path_on_failure: false
>      ansible_cfg_interpreter_python: "auto_silent"
>      ansible_cfg_forks: 10
>     -- 
>     2.49.0
> 

-- 
Chuck Lever