problem: qa/1.7.x branch error on role dependency (geerlingguy.nodejs)

[hakamine]

Getting an error like this when the role dependency is executing:

TASK [geerlingguy.nodejs : Create npm global directory] ********************************************************
...
    "mode": "0755",
    "msg": "chown failed: failed to look up user hector",
    "owner": "root",
    "path": "/usr/local/lib/npm",
    "size": 4096,
    "state": "directory",
    "uid": 0
}

[hakamine]

This happens due to a bug in https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-nodejs/blob/4.1.1/tasks/main.yml#L8-L11 :

- name: Define nodejs_install_npm_user
  set_fact:
    nodejs_install_npm_user: "{{ ansible_user | default(lookup('env', 'USER')) }}"
  when: nodejs_install_npm_user is not defined

In recent versions of ansible (testing with 2.3.x) ansible_user is not defined (being replaced by ansible_user_id) so nodejs_install_npm_user is assigned the user on the ansible control machine. This fails if we are using a different user in the ansible target machine.

It's worth noting that this problem does not happen when doing a vagrant deployment using the archivematica playbook in deploy-pub (https://github.com/artefactual/deploy-pub/tree/master/playbooks/archivematica), but will likely happen when doing deployments when the ansible control machine and target machine are different.

Workaround is to assign ansible_user_id to nodejs_install_npm_user in the playbook vars, for example when invoking the archivematica-src playbook:

    - { role: "external-roles/artefactual.archivematica-src", 
        tags: ["archivematica-src"], 
        become: yes, 
        nodejs_install_npm_user: "{{ ansible_user_id }}"
        }

[hakamine]

Fixed in #153, by adding a note to the README with a workaround

[sevein]

Have you considered submitting a PR to the original repo by geerlingguy?

[hakamine]

Just submitted this PR: geerlingguy/ansible-role-nodejs#75
Also, related reading: ansible/ansible#23530

[sevein]

Way to go!!! @hakamine thanks