Error while evaluating conditional (not (not ansible_ssh_extra_args)): 'ansible_ssh_extra_args' is undefined

James_Cobbett · June 3, 2021, 9:21am

I’m getting an error when trying to provision a remote server:
System info:
Ansible 2.11.1; Darwin
Trellis version (per changelog): “Improve handling of PHP versions and support PHP 8.0”
---------------------------------------------------
The conditional check ‘not (not ansible_ssh_extra_args)’ failed. The error
was: error while evaluating conditional (not (not ansible_ssh_extra_args)):
‘ansible_ssh_extra_args’ is undefined

The error appears to be in '/Users/james/Sites/square-
mile/trellis/roles/connection/tasks/main.yml': line 9, column 3, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:


- name: Specify preferred HostKeyAlgorithms for unknown hosts
  ^ here
fatal: [138.68.144.64]: FAILED! => {}

PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************************************************************
138.68.144.64              : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=1    rescued=0    ignored=0   
localhost                  : ok=0    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=1    rescued=0    ignored=0

Provision has always gone fine for me before, any ideas?

strarsis · June 3, 2021, 1:11pm

This reminds me of a recent PR that has been merged, it could also solve your issue:

James_Cobbett · June 3, 2021, 1:59pm

Thanks for your help starsis, that didn’t work but I have managed to fix it it seems.

I think it was just an issue with my ansible. I tried to update it last week and it throw some errors, I thought i’d navigated them and updated, but it must not have properly updated. I’m not quite sure what the fix was in the end, but I temporarily renamed some folders in in Library > Python … > ansible and installed again and have now managed to provision a server and deploy to another one.

mZoo · July 8, 2021, 7:42pm

Same error here.

With Ansible v2.9.23 as installed via Trellis-cli, same with Ansible v2.10.11.

Also tried using

v2.8 for ERROR! Unexpected Exception, this is probably a bug: cannot pickle '_io.TextIOWrapper' object)
v2.9.0 for ERROR! Unexpected Exception, this is probably a bug: cannot pickle 'module' object.

The field 'environment' has an invalid value, which includes an undefined
variable. The error was: 'ssh_args_default' is undefined

The error appears to be in '/Volumes/Ochosi/Clients/Client/example.com/trellis/roles/connection/tasks/main.yml': line 18, column 3,
but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:


- name: Check whether Ansible can connect as "{{ dynamic_user | default(true)
| ternary('root', web_user) }}"
  ^ here
We could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with
missing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they
start a value. For instance:

    with_items:
      - {{ foo }}

Should be written as:

    with_items:
      - "{{ foo }}"
fatal: [157.230.58.##]: FAILED! => {}

Current, latest [HEAD/Master of the roles/connect/main tasks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/roots/trellis/master/roles/connection/tasks/main.yml, with the update to not ansible_ssh_extra_args.

I am using the virtual environment generated by Trellis-cli, Python v3.8.5 on Big Sur.

strarsis · July 9, 2021, 11:03am

That uninitialized (undefined) variable ssh_args_default is defined in Python code by Trellis:

github.com

roots/trellis/blob/17430191bb7211545eb63ba3ba989ee95c262c5f/lib/trellis/plugins/callback/vars.py#L105



def v2_playbook_on_play_start(self, play):
    env = play.get_variable_manager().get_vars(play=play).get('env', '')
    env_group = next((group for key,group in iteritems(play.get_variable_manager()._inventory.groups) if key == env), False)
    if env_group:
        env_group.set_priority(20)

    for host in play.get_variable_manager()._inventory.list_hosts(play.hosts[0]):
        hostvars = play.get_variable_manager().get_vars(play=play, host=host)
        self.raw_vars(play, host, hostvars)
        host.vars['ssh_args_default'] = PlayContext(play=play)._ssh_args.default
        host.vars['cli_options'] = self.cli_options()
        host.vars['cli_ask_pass'] = self._options.get('ask_pass', False)
        host.vars['cli_ask_become_pass'] = self._options.get('become_ask_pass', False)
        host.vars['darwin_without_passlib'] = self.darwin_without_passlib()

So that function is either not called or it isn’t able to set that variable.

More information about .ssh_args:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/plugins/connection/ssh.html?highlight=ansible%20doc#parameter-ssh_args

mZoo · July 9, 2021, 3:11pm

You are so dope, @strarsis. What would I do without you.

In my case, the only difference in the plugins/callback/vars.py file was that I had this line in there:

# handle Ansible 2.7 and 2.8 cases by normalizing each into a dict
-        try:
-            from ansible import context

I think I had restored that line in initial troubleshooting, following having rebased my local Trellis codebase.

I am using Ansible v10. What I think may have solved the issue for me is that at some point in my hacking, I had added quotes around {{ dynamic_user | default(true) | ternary('root', web_user) }}.

So, sadly, I’m not sure what exactly caused the error in the first place.

In my case, it’s resolved. Thank you!

system · July 15, 2021, 9:21am

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