Receiving "unsupported parameter" when module reports unchanged

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1

I updated the copy module to support base 64 encoded content (details here https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-extras/pull/142). In order to update the copy module, I needed to update the ActionModule object which is part of the main ansible project. I basically added a boolean parameter called “b64_encoded” that, when set to true, will attempt to base64 decode the “content” parameter before writing it to a file. This works perfectly when either the file didn’t exist already, or the file is being changed. However, I am receiving the error “unsupported parameter for module: b64_encoded” whenever the module should be returning unchanged. Please see an example below:

First run, file does not exist
$ ansible all -m copy -a “content=SGVsbCBXb3JsZA== b64_encoded=true dest=/tmp/copy_output” -i /tmp/hosts -v
localhost | success >> {
“changed”: true,
“checksum”: “3710fad362f1436cca4539485a56fbd4742d933e”,
“dest”: “/tmp/copy_output”,
“gid”: 1000,
“group”: “derek”,
“md5sum”: “fe05c18b23d7defae2e24a3a6432b9c0”,
“mode”: “0644”,
“owner”: “derek”,
“size”: 10,
“src”: “/home/derek/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1419012506.95-106112902391882/source”,
“state”: “file”,
“uid”: 1000
}

Second run, same exact command as above. Notice the checksum is the same:
$ ansible all -m copy -a “content=SGVsbCBXb3JsZA== b64_encoded=true dest=/tmp/copy_output” -i /tmp/hosts -v
localhost | FAILED >> {
“checksum”: “3710fad362f1436cca4539485a56fbd4742d933e”,
“failed”: true,
“msg”: “unsupported parameter for module: b64_encoded”
}

I’m running Arch Linux with the following python 2.7.9 and the latest ansible/devel version. At this point I am unsure if this is a problem with my development environment or a something I missed in the code when I added that parameter to the ActionModule? Has anyone experienced a similar problem?

Changes to the ActionModule can be found here:
https://github.com/danderson189/ansible/commit/24a884fb287c9a2d0b544e240676b089dc85671e

Changes to the copy module can be found here:
https://github.com/danderson189/ansible-modules-core/commit/cefee98b47f962c83b75db60c231409e415dc7f3

2

My gut feeling here is the content parameter has been historically problematic, and this content belongs copied via a “src” parameter.

This prevents awkward inclusion of long base64 content in the module call, which doesn’t quite scale so well - and encourages people to move large files efficiently.

Given, there may be some reasons why ‘src’ isn’t appropriate, but can you expand on your use case for the above?

3

My reasons for doing this are that I have a custom corosync auth key for each of my different environments, which are different inventories in Tower. The reasoning behind this is that I don’t want to check a sensitive file like this into my version control. Also, I use the same playbooks in each of the environments, so group vars seemed like the way to go. Honestly, it is not meant to be used for large files, but rather just small binary files such as the corosync auth key. There has been a lot of discussion on the best way to implement this, I currently have a pull request for a custom module I am using to solve this problem now (https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-extras/pull/142). However, the general consensus is that it should be a part of an existing module, either the template module or copy module. The full discussion can be viewed at the provided link.

If there is concern for users submitting large files through the content parameter, I can put a size restriction on it as well.