The vault password file was not found

[ReenigneArcher]

Summary

Ansible lint gives warnings/errors that it cannot find the vault password file. I create my vault password using the following step before the ansible lint step.

run: echo ${{ secrets.MYSECRET || '1234' }} > .vault-password

I run ansible lint with this step:

uses: ansible/ansible-lint@v6.18.0
with:
  args: "playbooks/"

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

ansible-lint --version

6.18.0 (using ansible-lint as github action)

• ansible installation method: pypi
• ansible-lint installation method: using github action

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

Set password file location in config.

ansible.cfg

vault_password_file=.vault-password

Create vault passowrd file in workflow, as shown above.

Run ansible lint action, as shown above.

Desired Behavior

Find the file, that was created.

Possible security bugs should be reported via email to security@ansible.com

Actual Behavior

File was not found.

Warning: /some_playbook.yml:1 [WARNING]: Error getting vault password file (default): The vault password file /runner/_work/ansible-repo/ansible-repo/.vault-password was not found

Additional Information

I use the same method of creating the .vault-password file to actually run ansible playbooks inside of GitHub actions, and that works fine. I also did not have this problem on the now depreciated ansible-lint-action repository.

[mszumilak]

This seems to be a duplicate of #2443

[ReenigneArcher]

@mszumilak Maybe similar but I don't think it's a duplicate. They are having jinja and variable issues. I am having the issue where it cannot find the vault password file that does exist.

[ssbarnea]

@ReenigneArcher I do think that the vault password is not found because the current directory is different when running from lint. I would recommend you to ensure that you configure the path to vault file to be a full path, just in case.

Print the full of your dumped file, to check it.

[ReenigneArcher]

Specifying a full path to the password file is not the most practical advice as when you deploy the playbooks, the environments/directory structure likely don't match what you get with a GitHub runner.

Anyway, the password file exists at this location, which ansible lint is saying doesn't exist.

/runner/_work/ansible-repo/ansible-repo/.vault-password

[tamiroh]

I also encountered the same problem.

I think the reason for this is that actions/checkout deletes existing files when it runs. This is a specification and maybe impossible to work around.

[ssbarnea]

How about dumping the file outside the cloning area, maybe even in TMP. This should work. I will convert the issue into a discussion as it does not seem like a bug.