cmd.run cwd should not be checked before preconditions

Interesting catch-22 issue here. Say you have:

TaskA:
   cmd.run:
    - name: mkdir /tmp/a
    - unless:  which B

TaskB:
   cmd.run:
   - name: echo "hello" > /bin/B
   - unless: which B
   - cwd: /tmp/a
   - require: 
      - TaskA

The first time this provisions, it works fine. Then the machine reboots and /tmp is gone.
The next time it provisions, it will fail because the cwd for TaskB no longer exists, and wont be created because the ‘unless’ precondition of TaskA is now fulfilled. We’re stuck.

I know this seems a silly case, but you can conceivably see a number of chained build steps doing something like this.

I’ve had a stab at fixing this here at eeaston/salt@3273ae on the 2014.1 branch, but it’s a bit of an API change. The changes were to move the cwd existence checking until after the precondition checking, and also remove the cwd from the context of the ‘unless’ and ‘onlyif’ tests.

If you’d like me to continue on this I can (I’ll write some tests and stuff), but the removal of the cwd from the ‘unless’ and ‘onlyif’ checks will need to be documented. What say ye? Cheers, Ed

[sastorsl]

I’m seeing something similar to this with cmd.run + cwd + onlyif

<state>:
  - cmd.run: <do-something-to> /my/full/path
  - cwd: /my/full
  - onlyif:
    - /usr/bin/test -d /my/full/path

I would expect that the state is skipped if the onlyif test fails, but instead I’m getting:

 Comment: An exception occurred in this state: Traceback (most recent call last):
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/state.py", line 1733, in call
              **cdata['kwargs'])
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/loader.py", line 1651, in wrapper
              return f(*args, **kwargs)
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/states/cmd.py", line 821, in run
              cret = mod_run_check(cmd_kwargs, onlyif, unless, creates)
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/states/cmd.py", line 332, in mod_run_check
              cmd = __salt__['cmd.retcode'](entry, ignore_retcode=True, python_shell=True, **cmd_kwargs)
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/modules/cmdmod.py", line 1773, in retcode
              password=kwargs.get('password', None))
            File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/modules/cmdmod.py", line 460, in _run
              .format(cwd)
          CommandExecutionError: Specified cwd '/my/full/path' either not absolute or does not exist

My version

$ salt --versions-report
Salt Version:
           Salt: 2016.3.2

Dependency Versions:
           cffi: Not Installed
       cherrypy: 3.2.2
       dateutil: 1.5
          gitdb: 0.5.4
      gitpython: 0.3.2 RC1
          ioflo: Not Installed
         Jinja2: 2.7.2
        libgit2: Not Installed
        libnacl: Not Installed
       M2Crypto: 0.21.1
           Mako: Not Installed
   msgpack-pure: Not Installed
 msgpack-python: 0.4.7
   mysql-python: Not Installed
      pycparser: Not Installed
       pycrypto: 2.6.1
         pygit2: Not Installed
         Python: 2.7.5 (default, Oct 11 2015, 17:47:16)
   python-gnupg: Not Installed
         PyYAML: 3.10
          PyZMQ: 14.7.0
           RAET: Not Installed
          smmap: 0.8.1
        timelib: Not Installed
        Tornado: 4.2.1
            ZMQ: 4.0.5

System Versions:
           dist: redhat 7.2 Maipo
        machine: x86_64
        release: 3.10.0-327.13.1.el7.x86_64
         system: Linux
        version: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.2 Maipo

[taylor-peterson]

I’'m having this same issue on 2016.03.0