Repository: ansible/ansible

Issue:
Service module doesn't start service, always reports changed, using `service` program
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##### SUMMARY
<!--- Explain the problem briefly -->
The `service` module does not seem to do anything when instructing it to start a service. It always reports changed as well, even if the service is already started. This seems like it might be specific to machines where one uses `service`, the program (rather than for example `systemctl`)

##### ISSUE TYPE
 - Bug Report

##### COMPONENT NAME
<!--- Insert, BELOW THIS COMMENT, the name of the module, plugin, task or feature.
Do not include extra details here, e.g. "vyos_command" not "the network module vyos_command" or the full path-->
service

##### ANSIBLE VERSION
<!--- Paste, BELOW THIS COMMENT, verbatim output from "ansible --version" between quotes below -->
```
ansible 2.6.1
  config file = None
  configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 2.7.15rc1 (default, Apr 15 2018, 21:51:34) [GCC 7.3.0]
```

##### CONFIGURATION
<!--- If using Ansible 2.4 or above, paste, BELOW THIS COMMENT, the results of "ansible-config dump --only-changed"
Otherwise, mention any settings you have changed/added/removed in ansible.cfg
(or using the ANSIBLE_* environment variables).-->
Everything was using the defaults. `ansible-config dump --only-changed` did not return anything.

##### OS / ENVIRONMENT
<!--- Mention, BELOW THIS COMMENT, the OS you are running Ansible from, and the OS you are
managing, or say "N/A" for anything that is not platform-specific.
Also mention the specific version of what you are trying to control,
e.g. if this is a network bug the version of firmware on the network device.-->
I am managing from a `ubuntu:18.04` Docker container.
I am managing another `ubuntu:18.04` Docker container.

It's probably relevant that in the container only `service` is available, and not `systemctl` for example.

Another thing that may be relevant is that when I run it from my arch host to the `ubuntu:18.04` container, it works fine. My arch is running ansible 2.5.4 though.

##### STEPS TO REPRODUCE
<!--- For bugs, show exactly how to reproduce the problem, using a minimal test-case.
For new features, show how the feature would be used. -->
This is using molecule to test my role in a Docker container. I'm on Arch myself, but I was having problem in my Bitbucket pipeline which runs in Docker as well. In order to reproduce the bug I first run `docker run -it -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --memory=2048m ubuntu:18.04 bash` to get into the host container. Now I use molecule to run this in yet another container, but I'd expect the same results if you ran it on itself.

First I install the ssh-server. Then I start the service, as with the commands below. Then I run the commands once more.

<!--- Paste example playbooks or commands between quotes below -->
```yaml
- name: Install SSH server
  apt:
    name: openssh-server
    update_cache: true
    state: present
  become: true

- name: Start SSH Daemon
  service:
    name: ssh
    state: started
  become: true
```

<!--- You can also paste gist.github.com links for larger files -->

##### EXPECTED RESULTS
<!--- What did you expect to happen when running the steps above? -->
The second run returns only `ok` messages, as the commands are idempotent. The target system has a running ssh daemon.

##### ACTUAL RESULTS
<!--- What actually happened? If possible run with extra verbosity (-vvvv) -->
Running this again still gets me `changed` on the starting of the service.

To my surprise, when I entered the container to see the result, it turned out the service wasn't started at all! I started it by hand using `service ssh start`, and ran the playbook again. I got `changed` again. I wondered whether perhaps it had something to do with `ssh` specifically so I tried `fail2ban` too, and it had the same problem.

Here is the output of the `ssh` example with extra verbosity in the just provided context of already having ran and started:

<!--- Paste verbatim command output between quotes below -->
```
TASK [ansible-ssh-server : Start SSH Daemon] ***********************************
    task path: /ansible-ssh-server/tasks/main.yml:24
    <instance> ESTABLISH DOCKER CONNECTION FOR USER: root
    <instance> EXEC ['/usr/bin/docker', 'exec', '-i', u'instance', u'/bin/sh', '-c', u"/bin/sh -c 'echo ~ && sleep 0'"]
    <instance> EXEC ['/usr/bin/docker', 'exec', '-i', u'instance', u'/bin/sh', '-c', u'/bin/sh -c \'( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654="` echo /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654 `" ) && sleep 0\'']
    Using module file /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py
    <instance> PUT /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-8097l0_bJL/tmp0ORtSX TO /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654/sysvinit.py
    <instance> EXEC ['/usr/bin/docker', 'exec', '-i', u'instance', u'/bin/sh', '-c', u"/bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654/ /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654/sysvinit.py && sleep 0'"]
    <instance> EXEC ['/usr/bin/docker', 'exec', '-i', u'instance', u'/bin/sh', '-c', u'/bin/sh -c \'sudo -H -S -n -u root /bin/sh -c \'"\'"\'echo BECOME-SUCCESS-xlsjfjizpvhoawxolcpjseuidaoyphix; /usr/bin/python /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654/sysvinit.py\'"\'"\' && sleep 0\'']
    <instance> EXEC ['/usr/bin/docker', 'exec', '-i', u'instance', u'/bin/sh', '-c', u"/bin/sh -c 'rm -f -r /root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1531308482.36-152745944531654/ > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'"]
    changed: [instance] => {
        "changed": true, 
        "invocation": {
            "module_args": {
                "arguments": null, 
                "daemonize": false, 
                "enabled": null, 
                "name": "ssh", 
                "pattern": null, 
                "runlevels": null, 
                "sleep": 1, 
                "state": "started"
            }
        }, 
        "name": "ssh", 
        "status": {
            "enabled": {
                "changed": true, 
                "rc": 0, 
                "stderr": "", 
                "stdout": " * sshd is running\n"
            }, 
            "started": {
                "changed": false, 
                "rc": null, 
                "stderr": null, 
                "stdout": null
            }
        }
    }
    META: ran handlers
    META: ran handlers
```



Discussion:
Files identified in the description:
* [lib/ansible/modules/system/service.py](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/lib/ansible/modules/system/service.py)

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Possibly much more interesting information is the output of trying to start the service when it has not started yet. Just having a `service` task with `name: ssh` and `state: started` gets me:

```
changed: [instance] => {
        "changed": true, 
        "invocation": {
            "module_args": {
                "arguments": null, 
                "daemonize": false, 
                "enabled": null, 
                "name": "ssh", 
                "pattern": null, 
                "runlevels": null, 
                "sleep": 1, 
                "state": "started"
            }
        }, 
        "name": "ssh", 
        "status": {
            "enabled": {
                "changed": true, 
                "rc": 3, 
                "stderr": "", 
                "stdout": " * sshd is not running\n"
            }, 
            "started": {
                "changed": true, 
                "rc": 0, 
                "stderr": "Extra argument ssh.\n", 
                "stdout": " * Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server sshd\n   ...fail!\n"
            }
        }
    }
```

Especially interesting I thought were the last `stderr` and `stdout`.
The actual command that seems to be formed [here](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.6/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py#L302) is (I just printed it) `/etc/init.d/ssh start ssh None`. This indeed returns the `stderr` and `stdout` that we see in the previous comment. It could be one of many commands to get it working, but closest to current behavior would be `/etc/init.d/ssh start`. This would mean not using the `name` parameter (I'm not sure why that is even there) and making it so that when the arguments are empty we don't get `None` in our command.
I could start the service by replacing [this](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.6/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py#L302) line with:

```
args = module.params['arguments']
cmd = "%s %s %s" % (script, doit, "" if args is None else args)
```

But like I said I'm not sure what this would break for others. And I still always get `changed` but not because of the `state: started`, but because of this:

```
"enabled": {
                "changed": true, 
                "rc": 0, 
                "stderr": "", 
                "stdout": ""
            }
```

Which is not even a flag I provided so it shouldn't even be doing this afaik
It seems that whether or not the service is enabled is compared to the user-set parameter, whether it is actually set or not.
resolved_by_pr #42786 

Resolving patch:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py b/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/system/sysvinit.py
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ def main():
                 elif location.get('chkconfig'):
                     (rc, out, err) = module.run_command("%s --level %s %s off" % (location['chkconfig'], ''.join(runlevels), name))
     else:
-        if enabled != runlevel_status["enabled"]:
+        if enabled is not None and enabled != runlevel_status["enabled"]:
             result['changed'] = True
             result['status']['enabled']['changed'] = True
 
@@ -300,7 +300,9 @@ def main():
 
         def runme(doit):
 
-            cmd = "%s %s %s %s" % (script, doit, name, module.params['arguments'])
+            args = module.params['arguments']
+            cmd = "%s %s %s" % (script, doit, "" if args is None else args)
+
             # how to run
             if module.params['daemonize']:
                 (rc, out, err) = daemonize(cmd)


Test patch: