ansible-lint should allow role names beginning with a underscore

[gardar]

Summary

Recently we added a ansible role for common shared tasks to the prometheus ansible collection. The role is named _common (fqcn prometheus.prometheus._common) to distinguish it from the other roles in the collection, as it is a internal role that's only supposed to be used by the other roles and not directly by a user.

ansible-lint generates false positives for that particular role, the role-name rule and the var-naming[no-role-prefix] rule.
The error message for the var-naming[no-role-prefix] rule suggests that the variable should be named exactly like it is already named, for example:

var-naming[no-role-prefix]: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_service_name)
var-naming[no-role-prefix]: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: __common_binary_basename)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_local_cache_path)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binaries)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_name)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_install_dir)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_config_dir)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_url)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_checksums_url)

I know the Ansible docs suggest that role names should not begin with a underscore, but Ansible does not seem to have any issues with consuming a role with a name like this, and neither does ansible galaxy have any issues with importing the role. I've tested with every ansible version between 2.9 - 2.17.

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Run ansible/ansible-lint@main
  with:
    setup_python: true
    expected_return_code: 0
  env:
    ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR: true
    ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_GALAXY_URL: https://galaxy.ansible.com/
    ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_GALAXY_TIMEOUT: 120
    ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_LIST: galaxy

Using ansible-lint github action.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Desired Behavior

ansible-lint should allow ansible role names beginning with _. At least when they are a part of a collection, continue to disallow a _ prefix in standalone roles is probably a good idea.

Actual Behavior

role-name: Role name _common does not match ``^[a-z][a-z0-9_]*$`` pattern.
roles/_common:1
Error: Role name _common does not match ``^\[a-z]\[a-z0-9_]*$`` pattern.
var-naming[no-role-prefix]: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_service_name)
var-naming[no-role-prefix]: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: __common_binary_basename)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_local_cache_path)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binaries)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_name)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_install_dir)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_config_dir)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_binary_url)
Error: Variables names from within roles should use _common_ as a prefix. (vars: _common_checksums_url)

Please give some details of what is happening. Include a minimum complete
verifiable example with:

• minimized playbook to reproduce the error
• the output of running ansible-lint including the command line used
• if you're getting a stack trace, also the output of
  ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbook

[cavcrosby]

I wonder if this implies that there is a bug elsewhere (e.g. docs, Galaxy), as according to the documentation, the verbiage suggests roles within a collection starting with an underscore shouldn't be able to be imported via Galaxy.

The collection import into Galaxy will fail if a role name does not comply with these rules.