Remove first line `---`

Proposal: Remove --- from the top of each YAML file, if it does not start with a front matter block

Author: Your Name <@lucendio>

Date: 2019-09-01

• Status: New
• Proposal type: file syntax
• Estimated time to implement: 2 days

Motivation

One way to use Molecule is to start by generating a skeleton. This results in a lot of files starting with a line that is not needed in most cases.

Problems

This first line (---) is unnecessary in most cases and can lead to confusion by the reader as well as to inconsistency in the project where Molecule generates code into.

Solution proposal

Remove the first line consisting of --- from each YAML file that does not start with a front matter or contains multiple YAML documents.

Dependencies

Possibly the (version of the) YAML parser being used by Ansible.

Testing

Use existing test facilities to see if something breaks.

Documentation

Probably referring to Ansible Docs: YAML Syntax, which states that this line is optional.

Anything else?

N/A

[cognifloyd]

Odd. I have always made sure that --- is in all my yaml documents. I like the consistency across all files. If I don’t see the --- then I have to double check the line number to see if I’m at the top of the file or check my history to make sure I didn’t inadvertently delete it. It’s interesting to see when opinions differ 😄

[ssbarnea]

Is not molecule goal to make decisions about this. Ansible-lint and yamllint are projects more suited to make decision in this area.

I personally am in favour of not using --- when is not needed, but I am in a position to impose my preference.