# Unable to use test-module to develop modules under Arch Linux **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Developer\ **Tags:** ubuntu\ **Created:** [December 16, 2016, 9:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272 "2016-12-16T09:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Klaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Andrew\_Klaus](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Klaus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 9:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272/1 "2016-12-16T09:06:51Z")
Hi guys, I’m trying to write some modules for Ansible, but getting stumped on this error below… OS: Arch Linux Linux laps 4.4.37-1-lts #1 SMP Thu Dec 8 22:29:57 CET 2016 x86\_64 GNU/Linux I git cloned the ansible repo and ran the env-setup successfully: $ source ansible/hacking/env-setup running egg\_info creating lib/ansible.egg-info writing top-level names to lib/ansible.egg-info/top\_level.txt writing requirements to lib/ansible.egg-info/requires.txt writing lib/ansible.egg-info/PKG-INFO writing dependency\_links to lib/ansible.egg-info/dependency\_links.txt writing manifest file ‘lib/ansible.egg-info/SOURCES.txt’ reading manifest file ‘lib/ansible.egg-info/SOURCES.txt’ reading manifest template ‘MANIFEST.in’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘v2’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘docsite’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘ticket\_stubs’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘packaging’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘test’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘hacking’ warning: no previously-included files found matching ‘lib/ansible/modules/core/.git\*’ warning: no previously-included files found matching ‘lib/ansible/modules/extras/.git\*’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘lib/ansible/modules/core/.git’ no previously-included directories found matching ‘lib/ansible/modules/extras/.git’ writing manifest file ‘lib/ansible.egg-info/SOURCES.txt’ Setting up Ansible to run out of checkout… PATH=/home/user/git/ansible/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site\_perl:/usr/bin/vendor\_perl:/usr/bin/core\_perl PYTHONPATH=/home/user/git/ansible/lib: MANPATH=/home/user/git/ansible/docs/man: Remember, you may wish to specify your host file with -i Done! I created a bare minimum module file to use (confirmed it works on Ubuntu 16.04): $ cat test.py from ansible.module\_utils.basic import AnsibleModule def main(): module = AnsibleModule( argument\_spec = dict( state = dict(default=‘present’, choices=[‘present’, ‘absent’]), name = dict(required=True), enabled = dict(required=True, type=‘bool’), something = dict(aliases=[‘whatever’]) ) ) module.exit\_json(changed=True, something\_else=12345) if **name** == ‘ **main** ’: main() Running the test-module asks for options (as expected) $ ./ansible/hacking/test-module Usage: test-module -[options] (-h for help) Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit -m MODULE\_PATH, --module-path=MODULE\_PATH REQUIRED: full path of module source to execute -a MODULE\_ARGS, --args=MODULE\_ARGS module argument string -D DEBUGGER, --debugger=DEBUGGER path to python debugger (e.g. /usr/bin/pdb) -I INTERPRETER\_TYPE=INTERPRETER\_PATH, --interpreter=INTERPRETER\_TYPE=INTERPRETER\_PATH path to interpreter to use for this module (e.g. ansible\_python\_interpreter=/usr/bin/python) -c, --check run the module in check mode -n, --noexecute do not run the resulting module -o FILENAME, --output=FILENAME Filename for resulting module However, when running the module with test-module (with and without the --interpreter flag present), results in the following error: $ ./ansible/hacking/test-module -m test.py --interpreter=ansible\_python\_interpreter=/usr/bin/python2 Traceback (most recent call last): File “./ansible/hacking/test-module”, line 245, in main() File “./ansible/hacking/test-module”, line 227, in main (modfile, modname, module\_style) = boilerplate\_module(options.module\_path, options.module\_args, options.interpreter, options.check, options.filename) File “./ansible/hacking/test-module”, line 149, in boilerplate\_module if module\_style == ‘new’ and ‘ANSIBALLZ\_WRAPPER = True’ in module\_data: TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not ‘str’ From what I read it sounds like it’s a python3-related error, but overriding the interpreter I would assume would use python2. Any insight into fixing this would be great. Andrew ---
**Author:** ![James\_Pic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@James\_Pic](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Pic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272/2 "2016-12-16T14:31:29Z")
Hi Andrew, Did you try something like b’ANSIBALLZ\_WRAPPER = True’ ? Perhaps you can find more hints here: [http://www.diveintopython3.net/strings.html#byte-arrays](http://www.diveintopython3.net/strings.html#byte-arrays) ---
**Author:** ![James\_Pic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@James\_Pic](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Pic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272/3 "2016-12-16T14:34:29Z")
PS: this is just to try, then for the fix that will support both python 2 & 3 you’ll have to use something like six, ie: [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/modules/source\_control/git.py#L242](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/modules/source_control/git.py#L242) Hope this helps ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Klaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Andrew\_Klaus](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Klaus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272/4 "2016-12-17T06:12:54Z")
Thanks for the suggestions. Changing it to b’ANSIBALLZ\_WRAPPER = True’ ended up giving me this error: modfile2.write(module\_data) #!/usr/bin/env python TypeError: write() argument must be str, not bytes Then changing it to modfile2.write(str(module\_data)) to see what would happen ended up with: File “/usr/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py”, line 1551, in \_execute\_child raise child\_exception\_type(errno\_num, err\_msg) OSError: [Errno 8] Exec format error I changed the shebang in the test-module from #!/usr/bin/env python to #!/usr/bin/env python2 seemed to do the trick though… Andrew ---
**Author:** ![Poojitha\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Poojitha\_A](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Poojitha_A)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/unable-to-use-test-module-to-develop-modules-under-arch-linux/23272/5 "2017-02-15T06:34:20Z")
Hi Guys, can we use a test.pyo file instead of a test.py file to provide module-path?