New warning about connection plugin

[AlanCoding]

SUMMARY

Using Ansible core devel branch, I see a warning:

[WARNING]: The "community.docker.docker" connection plugin has an improperly configured remote target value, forcing "inventory_hostname" templated value instead of the string

This issues proposes to fix whatever this message is advising to fix.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

plugins/connection/docker.py

ANSIBLE VERSION

$ ansible --version
[WARNING]: You are running the development version of Ansible. You should only run Ansible from "devel" if you are modifying the Ansible engine, or
trying out features under development. This is a rapidly changing source of code and can become unstable at any point.
ansible [core 2.13.0.dev0] (devel 27923aad7e) last updated 2022/03/08 09:03:09 (GMT -400)
  config file = /home/alancoding/repos/playbooks/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/alancoding/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/alancoding/repos/ansible/lib/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/alancoding/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/alancoding/repos/awx/env/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.10.1 (main, Jan 10 2022, 00:00:00) [GCC 11.2.1 20211203 (Red Hat 11.2.1-7)]
  jinja version = 3.0.3
  libyaml = True

COLLECTION VERSION

$ ansible-galaxy collection list
[WARNING]: You are running the development version of Ansible. You should only run Ansible from "devel" if you are modifying the Ansible engine, or
trying out features under development. This is a rapidly changing source of code and can become unstable at any point.

# /home/alancoding/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection                      Version
------------------------------- -------
ansible_runner.display_callback 1.0.0  
awx.awx                         19.4.0 
cloud.common                    2.0.3  
community.docker                2.2.1  
community.kubernetes            2.0.0  
containers.podman               1.9.1  
kubernetes.core                 2.0.2  
openstack.cloud                 1.7.0  

# /usr/share/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
---------- -------
awx.awx    19.4.1 

CONFIGURATION

defaults

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Fedora host machine, CentOS stream derived target containers.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

My inventory looks like this:

$ ansible-inventory ~/repos/tower-qa/playbooks/inventory-docker.py --list --export
[WARNING]: You are running the development version of Ansible. You should only run Ansible from "devel" if you are modifying the Ansible engine, or
trying out features under development. This is a rapidly changing source of code and can become unstable at any point.
{
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {
            "127.0.0.1": {
                "ansible_connection": "local",
                "ansible_python_interpreter": "/home/alancoding/repos/awx/env/bin/python3"
            },
            "tools_awx_1": {
                "ansible_connection": "community.docker.docker",
                "ansible_user": "0"
            }
        }
    },
    "all": {
        "children": [
            "automationcontroller",
            "execution_nodes",
            "local",
            "sso",
            "tower",
            "ungrouped"
        ]
    },
    "automationcontroller": {
        "hosts": [
            "tools_awx_1"
        ]
    },
    "local": {
        "hosts": [
            "127.0.0.1"
        ]
    },
    "tower": {
        "hosts": [
            "tools_awx_1"
        ]
    }
}

No warnings are raised parsing the inventory.

Let's run a playbook that does work against those containers. I'm running https://github.com/AlanCoding/playbooks/blob/devel/image_distribute.yml

ansible-playbook image_distribute.yml --tags list

(ultimately, you'll get the same result with any comand: task, the problem appears to be in the hostvars as the connection plugin gets used)

EXPECTED RESULTS

Works with no warnings

ACTUAL RESULTS

Works but has warnings

TASK [Get the images on the system, double-check your work] **********************************************************************************************
[WARNING]: The "community.docker.docker" connection plugin has an improperly configured remote target value, forcing "inventory_hostname" templated value
instead of the string
changed: [tools_awx_1]

This warning comes from

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/56edbd2bbb372a61dae2017923f1d8e33d1922d9/lib/ansible/playbook/play_context.py#L300-L305

Introduced in ansible/ansible#77005

The Ansible issue ansible/ansible#77001 gives a little bit more description of the problem. Mentioned in that issue:

I suspect i messed up the default play_context.remote_addr and the docker connection plugin is still using that instead of 'get_option'. That we get the error as module output makes no sense.

It is true, this collection sets this option:

community.docker/plugins/connection/docker.py

Lines 35 to 41 in 4b235a2

	remote_addr:
	description:
	- The name of the container you want to access.
	default: inventory_hostname
	vars:
	- name: ansible_host
	- name: ansible_docker_host

[felixfontein]

resolved_by_pr #297

[felixfontein]

This also applies to the docker_api connection plugin. That's fixed in #308.