Problem discovering python interpreter

[insanitywholesale]

I normally use the modules in the collection to edit a debian cloud image and prepare it so it can be used in a VM template inside proxmox. After upgrading from proxmox 7 (based on debian 11) to proxmox 8 (based on debian 12) I started getting the following errors:

fatal: [pve03]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {}, "changed": false, "failed_modules": {"ansible.legacy.setup": {"failed": true, "module_stderr": "Shared connection to 10.0.50.73 closed.\r\n", "module_stdout": "/bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/env python3: not found\r\n", "msg": "The module failed to execute correctly, you probably need to set the interpreter.\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 127}}, "msg": "The following modules failed to execute: ansible.legacy.setup\n"}
fatal: [pve02]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {}, "changed": false, "failed_modules": {"ansible.legacy.setup": {"failed": true, "module_stderr": "Shared connection to 10.0.50.72 closed.\r\n", "module_stdout": "/bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/env python3: not found\r\n", "msg": "The module failed to execute correctly, you probably need to set the interpreter.\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 127}}, "msg": "The following modules failed to execute: ansible.legacy.setup\n"}
fatal: [pve01]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {}, "changed": false, "failed_modules": {"ansible.legacy.setup": {"failed": true, "module_stderr": "Shared connection to 10.0.50.71 closed.\r\n", "module_stdout": "/bin/sh: 1: /usr/bin/env python3: not found\r\n", "msg": "The module failed to execute correctly, you probably need to set the interpreter.\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 127}}, "msg": "The following modules failed to execute: ansible.legacy.setup\n"}

At first, I tried setting interpreter_python = auto and then interpreter_python = auto_legacy but the error message was the same. Next, I tried hardcoding ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python inside inventory/group_vars/all.yml but that didn't fix the problem either and the error message stayed the same.

I did a quick test and removed the line #!/usr/bin/env python from the files inside ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/vkhitrin/libguestfs/plugins and then everything worked as expected. I'm not sure if that is an okay solution so I didn't open a PR with that but I wanted to mention it here.

[vkhitrin]

Hey @insanitywholesale,

If I understand correctly, are you executing the Ansible modules from a localhost (or any other host that is not a Proxmox host) and connecting to remote Proxmox hosts to modify local images?

Could you please share the Python and Ansible versions that you are using?

I have a Proxmox 8.2.2 host which I can also attempt to run a similar flow to yours.

[vkhitrin]

I accidentally deleted the comment...

@insanitywholesale, I was able to reproduce it on Proxmox 8.2.2.

The root cause is that there is no python executable by default in Debian 11 and onwards:

# apt-cache show python-is-python3
Package: python-is-python3
Source: what-is-python (13)
Version: 3.11.1-3
Installed-Size: 15
Maintainer: Matthias Klose  <doko@debian.org>
Architecture: all
Replaces: python, python-dev-is-python3 (<< 3.11.1-2), python-is-python2, python-is-python2-but-deprecated, python-minimal
Depends: python3
Breaks: python, python-dev-is-python3 (<< 3.11.1-2), python-is-python2, python-is-python2-but-deprecated, python-minimal
Description-en: symlinks /usr/bin/python to python3
 Starting with the Debian 11 (bullseye) and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal)
 releases, all python packages use explicit python3 or python2
 interpreter and do not use unversioned /usr/bin/python at all. Some
 third-party code is now predominantly python3 based, yet may use
 /usr/bin/python.
 .
 This is a convenience package which ships a symlink to point
 the /usr/bin/python interpreter at the current default python3. It may
 improve compatibility with other modern systems, whilst breaking some
 obsolete or 3rd-party software.
 .
 No packages may declare dependencies on this package.

# /usr/bin/env python
/usr/bin/env: ‘python’: No such file or directory

A temporary workaround without modifying the code can be either to create a symlink that points to python3 or install the meta package python-is-python3.

# ls -l $(which python)
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jan  8  2023 /usr/bin/python -> python3

# Before `python` symlink
ansible -i inventory moxxi05 -m vkhitrin.libguestfs.guestfs_command -a "image=/tmp/vm.qcow2 shell='cat /etc/os-release'"
moxxi01 | FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "module_stderr": "Shared connection to moxxi015closed.\r\n",
    "module_stdout": "/usr/bin/env: ‘python’: No such file or directory\r\n",
    "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error",
    "rc": 127
}

# After symlink
ansible -i inventory moxxi05 -m vkhitrin.libguestfs.guestfs_command -a "image=/tmp/vm.qcow2 shell='cat /etc/os-release'"
moxxi05 | FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "libguestfs Python bindings are required for this module"
}

Thanks for raising this, I will sort it out!