ansible-lint cluttering workspace with .ansible folders

[fbermel]

Summary

Installaing the latest version of ansible lint with pip install ansible-dev-tools leads to ansible-lint creating .ansible folders relative to the path where it was launched from.

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

> ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 25.1.3 using ansible-core:2.18.2 ansible-compat:25.1.3 ruamel-yaml:0.18.10 ruamel-yaml-clib:None

> uname -a
23.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 23.6.0: Thu Dec 19 20:47:53 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.141.1.703.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6030 arm64
> sw_vers
ProductName:            macOS
ProductVersion:         14.7.4
BuildVersion:           23H42

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

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

> cd ~/git/bml/infra_reloaded/
> ls
.git             .gitignore       .password        ansible.cfg      inventory        plays            requirements.txt requirements.yml roles 
> python -m venv .venv
> . .venv/bin/activate
> pip install --no-cache --quiet ansible-dev-tools

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 24.2 -> 25.0.1
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip
> ls .ansible
ls: .ansible: No such file or directory
> ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 25.1.3 using ansible-core:2.18.2 ansible-compat:25.1.3 ruamel-yaml:0.18.10 ruamel-yaml-clib:None
> ls .ansible
.lock       collections roles

Desired Behavior

ansible-lint should not create .ansible folders in the directory it's launched from.

Actual Behavior

ansible-lint creates a .ansible folder even if it's just ran with the --version flag (Also see "STEPS TO REPRODUCE")

> ls .ansible
ls: .ansible: No such file or directory
> ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 25.1.3 using ansible-core:2.18.2 ansible-compat:25.1.3 ruamel-yaml:0.18.10 ruamel-yaml-clib:None
> ls .ansible
.lock       collections roles

This is especially annoying when using it for linting inside an editor like neovim because it pollutes the workspace with these directories.

[monsdar]

This happens in VSCode with enabled Ansible plugin as well. As soon as I open a .yml file in any of my workspaces repos I'll get an empty .ansible/.lock file. Even if the yml does not contain any Ansible related data.

$ ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 25.1.3 using ansible-core:2.17.8 ansible-compat:25.1.4 ruamel-yaml:0.18.6 ruamel-yaml-clib:0.2.8
WARNING  Project directory /.ansible cannot be used for caching as it is not writable.
WARNING  Using unique temporary directory /tmp/.ansible-0aaa for caching.

[Thulium-Drake]

To add to the list of annoyances, it also actively breaks ansible-sign, and no, this issue cannot be worked around by excluding the .ansible folder in the configuration 😢

apt$ ansible-sign project gpg-sign .
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/ansible/.local/bin/ansible-sign", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(run())
             ~~~^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/cli.py", line 374, in run
    return main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/cli.py", line 364, in main
    exitcode = cli.run_command()
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/cli.py", line 46, in run_command
    return self.args.func()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/cli.py", line 321, in gpg_sign
    checksum_file_contents = self._generate_checksum_manifest()
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/cli.py", line 161, in _generate_checksum_manifest
    manifest = checksum.generate_gnu_style()
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/checksum/base.py", line 119, in generate_gnu_style
    calculated = self.calculate_checksums_from_root(verifying=False)
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/checksum/base.py", line 147, in calculate_checksums_from_root
    for path in self.differ.list_files(verifying=verifying):
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/checksum/differ/base.py", line 51, in list_files
    gathered = self.gather_files(verifying=verifying)
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/ansible_sign/checksum/differ/distlib_manifest.py", line 42, in gather_files
    manifest.process_directive(line)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/distlib/manifest.py", line 163, in process_directive
    if not self._include_pattern(pattern, anchor=False):
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/distlib/manifest.py", line 280, in _include_pattern
    self.findall()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/ansible/.local/share/pipx/venvs/ansible-sign/lib64/python3.13/site-packages/distlib/manifest.py", line 79, in findall
    stat = os.stat(fullname)
OSError: [Errno 40] Too many levels of symbolic links: '/home/ansible/roles/apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt/.ansible/roles/thulium_drake.apt'

[chazragg]

Have you had any luck with downgrading ansible-lint ? i tried version 24.9 after a colleague confirmed that they were not getting the issue but I've had no luck, it seems to be a persistent issue on my machine now across multiple repos / lint versions.

[bendwyer]

@chazragg I just finished testing this - it's because of changes to ansible-compat. Assuming pip:

pip uninstall -y ansible-compat ansible-lint molecule
pip install "ansible-compat==24.10.0" ansible-lint molecule

This will install an ansible-compat version that doesn't use the annoying .ansible folder "feature", but it restricts your ansible-lint and molecule versions to 25.1.0. Not sure if this is ultimately what you want.

[Thulium-Drake]

Specific for ansible-sign I just made this function in my shell when signing my code:

anssign () 
{ 
    rm -rf .ansible
    ansible-sign project gpg-sign .;
    git add .ansible-sign
}

[hille721]

Thanks for the workaround @bendwyer, already went ~ an hour through the docs as I thought I just configured something wrongly

[r-pufky]

Specific for ansible-sign I just made this function in my shell when signing my code:

anssign () 
{ 
    rm -rf .ansible
    ansible-sign project gpg-sign .;
    git add .ansible-sign
}

Just be careful of disk thrashing here. My .ansible directories were 2.5GB each, per role directory.

Workaround from @bendwyer works great, and also solves yamllint vomiting linting errors all over itself because of imported collections that violate yamllint standards.