Support parameter --playbook-dir for Inventory Sources

[gendergap]

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• [X] I agree to follow this project's code of conduct.
• [X] I have checked the current issues for duplicates.
• [X] I understand that AWX is open source software provided for free and that I might not receive a timely response.

Feature type

Enhancement to Existing Feature

Feature Summary

The ansible-inventory command allows to set a --playbook-dir base directory to locate all kinds of things inside a project. I personally use this to load a project-specific inventory plugin from the inventory_plugins directory of my project. But according to the documentation, it could also be relevant in a ton of other use cases.

AWX currently does not allow to set this variable for an inventory source, as far as I can see. This makes it impossible to load the dynamic inventory through the plugin for my project.

Select the relevant components

• [X] UI
• [ ] API
• [ ] Docs
• [ ] Collection
• [ ] CLI
• [ ] Other

Steps to reproduce

1. Set up an Ansible project with
   • a dummy playbook
   • a custom inventory plugin written in Python (in my case, sharepoint.py)
   • an inventory configuration for the plugin (to trigger the loading of the plugin) - here: hosts/sharepoint.yaml
2. Add the project to AWX (e.g., from a Git repository)
3. Configure a new Inventory in AWX
4. Set up an Inventory Source "Sourced from a Project" and select the inventory configuration
5. Try to synchronize the inventory

Current results

[WARNING]: * Failed to parse /runner/project/hosts/sharepoint.yaml with auto plugin: inventory config '/runner/project/hosts/sharepoint.yaml' specifies unknown plugin 'sharepoint'

Sugested feature result

I would wish that either

• AWX would automatically populate the parameter --playbook-dir with the path to the project (which seems to be /runner/project or
• AWX would offer a UI field for me to enter the variable value (doesn't really make much sense, so I only suggest this if the first option is complicated)

Additional information

No response

[gendergap]

I read through awx/main/tasks/jobs.py a bit and found out that the parameter --playbook-dir is actually set. It is set to the directory the inventory source is in. This by chance works well if the inventory configuration is located on the top layer (next to roles, and inventory_plugins). In my case, I have a bunch of inventory files which together reside in a subdirectory. AWX now uses this subdirectory as the --playbook-dir value and cannot find the plugin.

I believe this issue just went from "feature request" to "bug".

[gendergap]

As a workaround, I recommend to create a ansible.cfg file in your project and to write the following inside:

[defaults]

inventory_plugins = inventory_plugins

The value of that parameter is the name of the directory you keep your plugin in (relative to the project root).