Aliases unsupported in schema[role-arg-spec]

[nicolasbouchard-ubi]

Summary

When running ansible-lint against my scripts, I get this error: schema[role-arg-spec]: Additional properties are not allowed ('aliases' was unexpected)

But, running the validations passes in the playbook so surely the aliases has been taken into account because the argument is not named namespace.

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 6.17.2 ansible 2.14.8

• ansible installation method: pip
• ansible-lint installation method: pip

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Create a role with the following files:

defaults/main.yml
---
dictionary_root:
  dictionary_key1:
    arg1: "test_arg1"
    arg2: "test_arg2"


meta/argument_specs.yml
---
argument_specs:
  main:
    short_description: Entry point for role
    options:
      dictionary_root:
        type: dict
        required: true
        options:
          namespace:
            type: dict
            required: true
            aliases: ["dictionary_key1"]
            options:
              arg1:
                type: str
                required: true
              arg2:
                type: str
                required: true

Desired Behavior

The alisases is accepted as a valid attribute by ansible-lint.

Actual Behavior

schema[role-arg-spec]): Additional properties are not allowed ('aliases' was unexpected)

[ssbarnea]

@tima @cidrblock As core team keeps making changes to argument_spec, the JSON Schema for validating argument_spec from within linter is always getting out of sync.

Can we please have a talk and look into transitioning this to the same team that develops the argument_spec or at least find some way to prevent surprises via CI testing on core side?

Otherwise we will always be behind when it comes to the schema, having a sub-par implementation of the supported features.

There are multiple ways we can achieve this, some of them could even be very easy to implement. For example, adding running ansible-lint on on argspec fixtures used by core (good or bad) would basically ensure that no new feature is added that is not first included into the JSON Spec.

Also validating a JSON file with a schema can be done in 4-5 lines of python, so even moving the entire schema to core would not be hard, especially as this would not require any user facing changes (only affect the core internal testing).

[ssbarnea]

@nicolasbouchard-ubi Please check ansible/ansible#79657 which is an open PR that is expected to make core warn about unknown fields.

Aliases are not supported for role arg-spec, they are only supported for module arg-spec like LOTS of other fields.

Basically the linter does the right thing here. I am not sure how we can improve the experience because too often people that google for argspec endup finding the page about modules instead of roles.

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_reuse_roles.html#role-argument-validation

[cidrblock]

let me see what I can do.... no promises :)